Mars Express Beams Back Images of Ice-Filled Korolev Crater (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: The stunning Korolev crater in the northern lowlands of Mars is filled with ice all year round owing to a trapped layer of cold Martian air that keeps the water frozen. The 50-mile-wide crater contains 530 cubic miles of water ice, as much as Great Bear Lake in northern Canada, and in the centre of the crater the ice is more than a mile thick. Images beamed back from the red planet show that the lip around the impact crater rises high above the surrounding plain. When thin Martian air then passes over the crater, it becomes trapped and cools to form an insulating layer that prevents the ice from melting. The latest picture is a composite of five strip-like images taken from the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe, which swung into orbit around the planet on Christmas Day 2003. On the same day, the orbiter released the Beagle 2 lander, a British probe built on a shoestring budget, which touched down but failed to fully open on the surface. Mars Express photographed the Korolev crater with its high-resolution stereo camera, an instrument that can pick out features 10 metres wide, or as small as 2 metres when used in super-resolution mode.

Comments

click the link

[phantomfive]

That's one of the sweetest pictures of Mars I've ever seen.

Re:click the link

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a rendering. Real MEO data, but the image is CGI.

These images are an excellent celebration of such a milestone. Taken by the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), this view of Korolev crater comprises five different ‘strips’ that have been combined to form a single image, with each strip gathered over a different orbit. The crater is also shown in perspective, context, and topographic views, all of which offer a more complete view of the terrain in and around the crater.

Mars Express gets festive: a winter wonderland on Mars

But I agree, it is one of the greatest Martian images ever.

Great story. Glad for the break from politics.

[Seven Spirals]

What a cool picture, even if it is a bit fabricated. Also, thanks to whoever posted/accepted the article. This is much better than the latest political horror show and more reflective of "News for nerds, stuff that matters."

Re:What the hell?

[magarity]

Anyone know why they had to, or chose to, use a digital terrain model, rather than just give the complete real pictures?

Because the real picture is from orbit, straight down. Which is rather boring compared to the image produced by the terrain model.

Re:SpaceX

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Successes at powered landings on other bodies of the Solar System predate successes at powered landings on Earth from space, so you'd expect the landings on other bodies of the Solar System to be more successful today. But in fact, even though the landings elsewhere got better over time, they're still not perfect. Meanwhile powered landings on Earth have gotten better withing years instead of decades. It might have something to do with the frequency of attempts, though.