15 May 2024
A massive icy crater stares up at a Mars orbiter
A massive impact crater dominates a new view from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). The result of an ancient asteroid impact, the crater is located in Mars’ Utopia Planitia. That’s the largest known impact basin in the entire Solar System, with a diameter of roughly 3,300 kilometres (2,000 miles), or twice the size of Earth’s Sahara Desert from north to south. Interesting ice-related features on and below the surface of the crater give insight on the Red Planet’s watery past. “This remnant of an ancient impact is just one of the many scars asteroids have inflicted upon the Red Planet,” European Space Agency (ESA) officials said. “Water, volcanoes and impacts from asteroids shaped the Martian surface in the ancient past. Mars is currently a cold, dry desert.”
The recent image was taken
