Throwback image of a massive crater on Mars - captured by NASA's HiRISE camera

This throwback picture of a Martian crater shared by the SETI Institute on Twitter shows the Victoria crater, a massive impact crater at Meridiani Planum, near the equator of Mars. This dramatic oblique view of this 800-meter-wide (half-mile-wide) Martian crater was captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on 18 July 2009.

MRO's HiRISE is the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet. It operates in visible wavelengths, the same as human eyes, but with a telescopic lens that produces images at resolutions never before seen in planetary exploration missions.

Unlike earlier orbital images of this crater, this image was taken at more of a sideways angle. The camera pointing was 22 degrees east of straight down, yielding a view comparable to looking at the landscape out an aeroplane window.

Especially prominent in this oblique view of the Victoria crater is a bright band near the top of the crater wall. On-site investigations by NASA's Opportunity rover, which explored the Victoria crater from September 2006 through August 2008, indicated that the bright band near the top of the crater wall was formed by diagenesis (chemical and physical changes in sediments after deposition). This bright band separates the bedrock from the impact ejecta deposits of Victoria Crater.

Opportunity landed on Mars in 2004 and made a number of discoveries about the Red Planet. The solar-powered rover explored the Martian terrain for almost 15 years, far outlasting its planned 90-day mission.

#PPOD: The @HiRISE camera aboard #Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this oblique view of Victoria crater on 18 July 2009. The Opportunity rover spent more than a Mars year exploring the crater, from September 2006 through August 2008 Credit: @NASA @NASAJPL @Caltech @uarizona pic.twitter.com/fD6L25Gaup

— The SETI Institute (@SETIInstitute) September 28, 2022