images

Mars: water ice in an impact crater

by

ESA/DLR/FU Berlin-G. Neukum/Novapix

Reference

a-mar09-00063

Date

2006-10-20

This image  taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, show a patch of water ice sitting on the floor of an unnamed crater near the Martian north pole. The unnamed impact crater is located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars's far northern latitudes, at approximately 70.5° North and 103° East. The crater is 35 kilometres wide and has a maximum depth of approximately 2 kilometres beneath the crater rim. The circular patch of bright material located at the centre of the crater is residual water ice.