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[Bud Brewster]

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A fresh crater in Valles Marineris



by Hanneke Weitering

Friday, February 7, 2020: NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted a relatively fresh crater on the Red Planet using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. While lower-resolution images can help scientists identify craters on the Martian surface, high-resolution images like this one can help them determine the age of a crater.

For example, radial features known as "rays," which streak outward from the center of a crater, indicate that a crater is relatively young, because these features typically erode over time. A so-called "ejecta blanket" of dark basaltic rock, shown here in blue, creates a splash-like pattern closer to the site of the impact. NASA estimates that this crater, located in Valles Marineris, was created sometime between February and July of 2005.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)