Hadley Crater provides deep insight into martian geology
Earlier this year, ESA's Mars Express spacecraft observed the 120 km wide Hadley Crater, providing a tantalising insight into the martian crust. The images show multiple subsequent impacts within the main crater wall, reaching depths of up to 2600 m below the surrounding surface. This region imaged on 9 April 2012 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express shows the crater which lies to the west of the Al-Qahira Vallis in the transition zone between the old southern highlands and the younger northern lowlands. Hadley is named after the British lawyer and meteorologist George Hadley (1685-1768) whose name was also given to the 'Hadley cell', a circulation system in the Earth's atmosphere, which transports heat and moisture from the tropics up to higher latitudes. Read more