'Happy face' crater on Mars
Mon Apr 10, 2006 at 19:41 UTC
These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, show the Galle Crater, an impact crater located on the eastern rim of the Argyre Planitia impact basin on Mars.
The HRSC obtained these images during orbits 445, 2383, 2438, 2460 and 2493 with a ground resolution ranging between 10-20 metres per pixel, depending on location within the image strip.
The images show Crater Galle lying to the east of the Argyre Planitia impact basin and south west of the Wirtz and Helmholtz craters, at 51° South and 329° East.
The images of the 230 km diameter impact crater are mosaics created from five individual HRSC nadir and colour strips, each tens of kilometres wide.
A large stack of layered sediments forms an outcrop in the southern part of the crater. Several parallel gullies, possible evidence for liquid water on the Martian surface, originate at the inner crater walls of the southern rim.
Crater Galle, named after the German astronomer J.G. Galle (1812-1910), is informally known as the 'happy face' crater.
Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
This image, obtained by the HRSC on ESA's Mars Express, is a mosaic of overlapping images gathered during five separate orbits.
Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
This false-colour mosaic of Crater Galle was derived from three HRSC colour and nadir channels gathered during five overlapping orbits.
The crater's interior displays a surface shaped by aeolian (wind-caused) activity as seen in numerous dunes and dark dust devil tracks which removed the bright dusty surface coating.
Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
Perspective view of Crater Galle looking north. This image was obtained by the HRSC on ESA's Mars Express and has a ground resolution ranging from 10-20 metres per pixel.
The 'face' was first pointed out in images taken during NASA's Viking Orbiter 1 mission.
Its interior shows a surface which is shaped by 'aeolian' (wind-caused) activity as seen in numerous dunes and dark dust devil tracks which removed the bright dusty surface coating.
The colour scenes, false-colour and near true-colour, have been derived from three HRSC colour and nadir channels gathered during five overlapping orbits. The perspective views have been calculated from a mosaic of digital terrain models derived from the stereo channels.
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