Google+ Mars Travel: Mars Photo of the Day - Dec 27 2011

Mars Photo of the Day - Dec 27 2011

Today's Image of Mars shows Zunil Crater, located in Mars' Cerberus Plains, the youngest (least cratered) large lava plain on Mars. This 10km in diameter crater was created just a few million years ago. The impact is thought to have created 10 million secondary craters measuring 10m in diameter or larger. These secondary craters reach as far as 1600km.

It is thought that the Zunil impact crater could be the source of many shergottites, or meteorites from Mars that fall to Earth. Shergottites from two different periods (1.5 and 2.7 million years ago) are known to exist.

This image was taken by Mars Odyssey Orbiter's THEMIS camera. Clicking on the image will take you to the original THEMIS page.


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