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Mars probe photographed the crater field. / March 4, 2010 /

The probe Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) took pictures of a field of craters on Mars. Description and images available on the project site. Photo (1.2 MB) in high resolution can be found here.

According to scientists, the field consists of the so-called secondary craters, which formed in the fall of the planet’s surface material ejected from the main crater. Sometimes, these craters can reach the size of the main «colleagues», but in this case, education is small enough.

According to scientists, the study of the characteristics of these entities is extremely important task. The fact that the craters, for example, on the Martian plain, allow us to estimate its age. It’s enough to count the number of craters and divide them by the average number of meteor rain a year. Thus, when counting the craters is necessary to distinguish the secondary from the main.

Photographs were made with the help supplied with the unique optics HiRISE camera on board MRO. HiRISE is able to obtain images of objects on the surface with a size of not less than 30 centimeters from a height of 300 kilometers. New pictures were taken from a height of about 291 kilometers.

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