See the huge fingerprint on the surface of Mars

The crater in the photo is known as Airy-0. This is a depression 0.5 km wide, which is located inside much

the larger Airy crater, whose widthis about 43.5 km. The newly published photo was taken using HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment). Let's remember that this is a camera installed on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft to study Mars. The HiRISE camera was created by Ball Aerospace & Technologies, led by the University of Arizona and the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

According to NASA, in 1884, astronomers chosethe larger Airy Crater to mark the prime meridian of Mars, the line of zero longitude where East meets West. On Earth, the Prime Meridian is marked by the Royal Observatory of Greenwich in the Great Britain. This place is the border between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Airy Craters are named after British astronomer Sir George Biddell Airy, who built the telescope at the Royal Observatory Greenwich that first discovered the massive crater.

According to NASA, Airy Crater is located in the regionknown as Sinus Meridiani, which translates to "Middle Bay". The glowing ridges in the crater are known as transverse aeolian ridges (TAR), Abigail Freiman, a planetary scientist and deputy project scientist for NASA's Curiosity rover, told Live Science.

According to Freiman, the ridges are formed by sandydunes covered with a thin layer of dust. It contains hematite, a mineral composed of iron oxide, which is abundant in the area and which gives the earth the gray color in the photo. The hematite dust likely has reflective properties, which makes TAR stand out from the rest of the crater.

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