mars "Butterfly" Impact Crater

[vindictive666 (John)]

nice picture

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html

[ving (David)]

I think they have it wrong....
it looke to me to be 3 seperate impacts. the "ejecta" as they call in spreads out wide fromthe middle but at the end of each elongation the "ejecta" doesnt travel as far.
also if as tey say it had a shallow impact angle then the crater would be shallower at one end with a steep bank at the other wouldnt it?

nice looking crater tho

[mickoking]

I always thought it was a shame that the Beagle lander failed when it reached Mars coz it has such a cute name

[33South (Chris)]

Originally Posted by mickoking

I always thought it was a shame that the Beagle lander failed when it reached Mars coz it has such a cute name

Named after Charles Darwins ship HMS Beagle not the dog.
Although I like to think it was named after the spacecraft in the 1939 book "Voyage of the Space Beagle" by AE Van Vogt.
The name and underlying concept also came from Darwins book "Voyage of the Beagle"
Interestingly (for some) there is a number of original ideas that resurfaced in the early StarTrek and the whole basis of the film Alien.

[Robert_T]

Originally Posted by ving

I think they have it wrong....
it looke to me to be 3 seperate impacts. the "ejecta" as they call in spreads out wide fromthe middle but at the end of each elongation the "ejecta" doesnt travel as far.
also if as tey say it had a shallow impact angle then the crater would be shallower at one end with a steep bank at the other wouldnt it?

nice looking crater tho

sharp eyes Ving - Guess with the ejecta it would depend on the direction of each impact. Could be a central impact or two impacts at opposing angles that threw ejecta either side of the crater join...

[mickoking]

Originally Posted by 33South

Named after Charles Darwins ship HMS Beagle not the dog.
Although I like to think it was named after the spacecraft in the 1939 book "Voyage of the Space Beagle" by AE Van Vogt.
The name and underlying concept also came from Darwins book "Voyage of the Beagle"
Interestingly (for some) there is a number of original ideas that resurfaced in the early StarTrek and the whole basis of the film Alien.

Oh, I always thought Beagle was a piss take of Eagle (Apollo 11)

I guess it's not so cute then