Ice-filled crater

The rim of this ice-rich crater catches the early morning sunlight in the high northern latitudes of Mars, imaged by the CaSSIS camera onboard ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter on 26 October 2019.

This image features a simple 7 km-wide bowl-shaped crater pictured in the early morning. The sunlight falling on the ice deposits on the crater’s north-facing walls causes the ice to appear extremely bright. Ice fills much of the crater floor, and coats part of the surrounding terrain.

While the image was taken during the summer months, some shadowed regions receive fewer hours of sunlight on average throughout the year, so they trap permanent deposits of water ice.

The image is centred at 230.77ºE/73.95ºN. It was taken on 26 October 2019. The scale is indicated on the image.