Herschel is an impact crater[1] in Mars's southern hemisphere. At roughly 304 kilometers in diameter, it is a moderately large impact crater. Located at 14.5°S, 130°E, Herschel is in the Mare Tyrrhenum region[2] of Mars. The crater is jointly named after the seventeenth/eighteenth century father and son astronomers William Herschel and John Herschel.[3]
 Martian impact crater Herschel based on THEMIS image | |
| Planet | Mars |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 14°54′S 130°00′E / 14.9°S 130°E |
| Quadrangle | Mare Tyrrhenum |
| Diameter | 304.5 km |
| Eponym | William Herschel & John Herschel |
Moving Sand Dunes
editMars Global Surveyor spacecraft originally photographed fields of dark sand dunes within Herschel.[4][5] Images from the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed that sand dunes on the floor of the Herschel crater are not stationary (as previously believed), but moved over time. Images from photos taken by the Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on March 3, 2007 and December 1, 2010 show clear shifting of dunes and ripples.[6] Research published in Icarus stated that the dunes in Hershel Crater moved 0.8 m in a time span of 3.7 Earth-years. Also, it was determined that dune ripple moved 1.1 m in that time period.[7]
References
edit- ^ Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. "Herschel Impact Basin, Mars".
- ^ M. Cardinale, G. Komatsu, International Research School of Planetary Sciences. "Analysis of Diverse Dune Fields in Herschel Crater (Mars)from HiRISE Datasets" (PDF).
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Herschel". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
- ^ NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. "Dark Dunes in Herschel Crater". Archived from the original on 2016-10-07. Retrieved 2015-01-09.
- ^ NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. "Dark Sand Dunes and Sand Sheet in Herschel Crater".
- ^ NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Ariz./JHUAPL. "Rippling Dune Front in Herschel Crater on Mars".
- ^ Cardinale, M., S. Silvestro, D. Vazd, T. Michaels, M. Bourke, G. Komatsu, L. Marinangeli. 2016. Present-day aeolian activity in Herschel Crater, Mars. Icarus: 265, 139-148.