Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
By definition, impact craters are the remnants of immensely violent events. They are the remains of a conflict between an unstoppable force and an immovable object that is known to have wiped out entire species, right here on our home world.
Asteroid impacts are quite common in this solar system and, presumably, elsewhere as well. Our planet has had its share of such events in the past, and it’ll probably have some more in the future.
But no other planet was as bombarded by space rocks over the eons than Mars. And, what’s more important is the fact that the planet lacks the necessary features to cover the scars that remain, and this gives us curious people the chance to study most of them in detail.
As part of our coverage of the Mars photos sent back over the years by the HiRISE orbital camera, we’ve seen our share of craters. But as far as we can recall, none of them was as stunning as this one here (snapped in November 2021), proof that beauty can be born from chaos just as well.
Located in a region called Hephaestus Fossae (Hephaestus is the name of the Greek God of blacksmiths and other artisans, but also that of volcanos), the feature is officially described as a rampart crater.
That would be a kind of crater “that displays an ejecta with a low ridge along its edge.” This type of ejecta, known to scientists as fluidized, can be found mostly on Mars, according to the scientists over at the University of Arizona, who study HiRISE photos.
For the humans looking at Mars with lust in their eyes and dreams of getting there in their heads, this crater offers the chance “to estimate the depth to the water (ice) table through time over this peculiar region.”
But no other planet was as bombarded by space rocks over the eons than Mars. And, what’s more important is the fact that the planet lacks the necessary features to cover the scars that remain, and this gives us curious people the chance to study most of them in detail.
As part of our coverage of the Mars photos sent back over the years by the HiRISE orbital camera, we’ve seen our share of craters. But as far as we can recall, none of them was as stunning as this one here (snapped in November 2021), proof that beauty can be born from chaos just as well.
Located in a region called Hephaestus Fossae (Hephaestus is the name of the Greek God of blacksmiths and other artisans, but also that of volcanos), the feature is officially described as a rampart crater.
That would be a kind of crater “that displays an ejecta with a low ridge along its edge.” This type of ejecta, known to scientists as fluidized, can be found mostly on Mars, according to the scientists over at the University of Arizona, who study HiRISE photos.
For the humans looking at Mars with lust in their eyes and dreams of getting there in their heads, this crater offers the chance “to estimate the depth to the water (ice) table through time over this peculiar region.”
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