Herschel (Martian crater) explained

Titlecolor:	FA8072
Herschel
Coordinate Title:	Coordinates
Globe:	Mars
Coordinates:	-14.9°N 130°W
Diameter:	304.5 km
Eponym:	William Herschel & John Herschel

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.

Moving Sand Dunes

Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft originally photographed fields of dark sand dunes within Herschel.^{[3] [4]} 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.^[5] 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.^[6]

See also

• List of craters on Mars

Notes and References

1. Web site: Herschel Impact Basin, Mars . Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum .
2. Web site: Analysis of Diverse Dune Fields in Herschel Crater (Mars)from HiRISE Datasets . M. Cardinale, G. Komatsu, International Research School of Planetary Sciences .
3. Web site: Dark Dunes in Herschel Crater. NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. 2015-01-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20161007052838/http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/PSP/diafotizo.php?ID=PSP_002860_1650. 2016-10-07. dead.
4. Web site: Dark Sand Dunes and Sand Sheet in Herschel Crater. NASA/JPL/University of Arizona .
5. Web site: Rippling Dune Front in Herschel Crater on Mars. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Ariz./JHUAPL.
6. 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.