Watch: ESA’s stunning video of icy Korolev crater on Mars - Hindustan Times
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Watch: ESA’s stunning video of icy Korolev crater on Mars

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Byhindustantimes.com | Edited by Anubha Rohatgi
Jul 07, 2020 03:14 PM IST

The movie is based on images taken by European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express orbiter and showcases the 82 km wide water-ice-filled crater on the Red Planet.

Look at the picture above….wouldn’t you want to go to a beautiful place like on your next holiday? Well, visiting this place may not be possible for us since it is on planet Mars. So, here is the next best thing …..a video of this Martian feature known as Korolev crater.

Image of Korolev crater on Mars(Image Credit: ESA/ DLR/ FU Berlin)
Image of Korolev crater on Mars(Image Credit: ESA/ DLR/ FU Berlin)

The movie is based on images taken by European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express orbiter and showcases the 82 km wide water-ice-filled crater on the Red Planet.

The Korolev crater is located in the northern lowlands of the Red Planet, south of the large Olympia Undae dune field that partly surrounds Mars’ north polar cap, according to a statement on ESA website.

The crater is filled with ice, with its centre hosting a mound of water ice some 1.8 kilometres thick all year round. The reason for the year round permanently stable water ice in the crater is because its deepest part acts as a natural cold trap. The air above the ice cools and is thus heavier compared to the surrounding air: since air is a poor conductor of heat, the water ice mound is effectively shielded from heating and sublimation.

  

The ESA says the video of the stunning Korolev crater was created using images captured by Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), first published in December 2018, and the data from HRSC nadir and colour channels; the nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface. The mosaic image was then combined with topography information from the stereo channels of HRSC to generate a three-dimensional landscape, which was then recorded from different perspectives, as with a movie camera, to render the flight shown in the video.

The ESA released the video on July 2.

Scientists are eager to find the evidence of water on the surface of Mars which would prove beneficial for the long-term goal of colonising the Red Planet.

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