Utopia Planitia Crater

This unnamed crater in Utopia Planitia is shaped like a peanut shell, with an indentation in the crater rim at the middle of the crater. It is likely that this crater was created by a dual impact. In a dual (or double) impact the incoming meteor is broken into two or more pieces which impact together into the surface. This type of impact often has a unique ejecta blanket shape, pinched at the center making a butterfly shape, and a pronounced inner rim jutting out at the center. The ejecta blanket in this case does not show the butterfly shape, and the middle rim is on slightly visible on the left side of the crater. These irregularities may indicate the the meteor pieces were still very close together when they hit the surface. Orbit Number: 95144 Latitude: 31.6611 Longitude: 128.303 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2023-05-27 11:12 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26261