Exciting new images from Mars

New crater on Mars, courtesy NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Some of the most exciting images of Mars that have been taken in over 30 years of exploring the red planet have just been released. They are recent and possibly final results from the Mars Global Spacecraft with which NASA technicians had lost contact in November.

One set of images shows recent meteorite impacts on the surface of Mars. More impacts are expected on Mars than on Earth as the atmosphere is much thinner and provides less protection. Scientists though did not expect to notice the resulting impact craters from the wide angle images taken from the orbiting spacecraft. They were pleasantly surprised on 9 January 2006 when they saw a dark spot on an image of a region where they had not seen a dark spot in any previous image.

A close up image shown above revealed the dark spot as an impact site. The meteorite had come in at an oblique angle and broke into smaller fragments forming multiple craters. More details here.

Other new images show further impact craters that had occurred in the last few years and, most exciting of all, evidence that liquid water had flowed on the surface of Mars in recent years.