Press release
January 8, 2023
Small impact craters usually have a simple bowl shape, but sometimes more complex shapes can occur if the target is unusual.
The crater at the center of this HiRISE image is unusual because it has a wide, flat bench or terrace between the outer rim and the inner part, making it look somewhat like an eye.
Similar crater shapes can occur if the material underground changes from weak to strong. In these cases, the terrace level indicates where this change occurs. In the area covered by this observation, we have other reasons to suspect that the overlying material is mostly ice.
Terraced craters like this show us how thick this ice is, as the formation of the terraces shows us where the ice meets the underlying rock.
ESP_035189_2240 date: January 28, 2014 altitude: 302 km
SpaceRef Co-Founder, Explorers Club Fellow, Ex-NASA, Visiting Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Dropout Climber.
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