Why The 'Happy Face Crater' on Mars Is Happier Than Ever
NANCY ATKINSON, UNIVERSE TODAY
23 JANUARY 2021
Who has an even bigger grin than ten years ago? This goofy-looking crater on Mars.
These two images were taken by the HiRISE camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and show how Mars' surface is changing over time – in this case, due to thermal erosion.
The first of these images was taken in 2011 and the other in December of 2020, at roughly the same season, and show a few different changes. There are color variations that are due to different amounts of bright frost over darker red ground, according to the HiRISE team.