Public domain
Along the Straight Edge
From the collection of NASA Image and Video Library. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Most craters are round, because a high-velocity impact acts like a powerful explosion that expands in all directions. This crater is an exception because the northern rim is almost perfectly straight. One possibility is that there was a zone of joints or faults in the crust that existed before the impact. When the impact happened, the crater formed along the straight line of these faults. Something similar happened to Meteor Crater in Arizona.
NASA Image and Video Library’s own descriptionCredit lineAlong the Straight Edge. NASA/JPL, 2020-06-02. Public domain. ID: PIA23953.
