Bopolu_(crater)

Bopolu (crater)

Bopolu (crater)

Crater on Mars

Bopolu is an impact crater located within the Meridiani Planum extraterrestrial plain of Mars.[2] Bopulu was seen by Opportunity rover in 2010 in the distance, and with some of its rim visible.[2] Bopoplu was officially named in 2006 along with 31 Mars craters.[3] Research has indicated that the impact that is thought to have created Bopulu went so deep that it went through existing layers and ejected older material from Mars' Noachian period.[1] Bopulu is a 19 kilometres (12 mi) diameter wide crater south of the Opportunity MER-B landing site, a rover which operated in the region starting in 2004 and therefore resulted in greater exploration and study of craters in this region.[1] Bopulu was identified as a possible source for the Bounce Rock ejecta fragment[1] Bounce rock, which was examined by the MER-B rover, was found to be similar in composition to the shergottite class of Mars meteorite found on Earth (Meteorites found on Earth determined to be from Mars).[1]

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Bopulu is said be younger than the Burns Formation that predominates in the area.[4] Bopolu has been studied, along with Tooting crater, to try and better understand the geology of Endeavour crater which MER-B rover reached and could explore in situ.[5]

Bopolu is named for a town in nation of Liberia (see Bopolu, Africa); the name was approved by the IAU in September 2006.[6] Bopolu crater has a feature ID of 14185.[6]

  • Color-coded for minerals and annotated, Bopolu crater is centered in this image with its distinctive ejecta detected by MRO's CRISM instrument. Nearby is Endeavour crater, reached by MER-B in 2011
  • The rim of Bopolu crater is visible on the horizon of this March 2010 image taken by the Mars rover Opportunity; Bopolu is 65 kilometers (40 miles) away, when the rover was making its traverse to the closer Endeavour crater.[2]
  • A view of Bopolu crater from the THEMIS instrument on 2001 Mars Odyssey[7]

Context map

Annotated elevation map of Opportunity landing site and some surrounding craters including Endeavour and Airy

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "Opportunity Mars Rover mission: Overview and selected results from Purgatory ripple to traverses to Endeavour crater" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-07-21. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  2. [2]
    "NASA - Rim of Bopolu Crater Far to the Southwest of Opportunity".
  3. [3]
    "Names Approved for 31 Craters on Mars | USGS Astrogeology Science Center".
  4. [4]
    "Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Tours Spirit of St. Louis Crater". www.planetary.org. Retrieved 2018-02-09.
  5. [5]
    The degradational history of Endeavour crater, Mars Archived 2018-02-10 at the Wayback Machine, Icarus, 19 August 2015
  6. [6]
    "Planetary Names: Crater, craters: Bopolu on Mars". planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  7. [7]
    "Catalog Page for PIA14995".
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