Bile (Mars crater)
| Martian crater bile | ||
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| Bile crater captured by the Mars Global Surveyor probe in 1999. | ||
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| position | 51 ° 12 ′ S , 30 ° 54 ′ W | |
| diameter | 230 km | |
| history | ||
| Eponym | Johann Gottfried Galle | |
The crater Galle is an impact crater on Mars . In 1973 it was officially named by the International Astronomical Union after the astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle .
properties
Bile is about 230 kilometers in diameter. It lies at 31 ° W (329 ° E) and 51 ° S - on the eastern edge of the even larger Argyre Planitia crater .
The colloquial name Happy Face goes back to its appearance: the formation inside the crater, together with its wall, is reminiscent of a smiley face .
reception
Since the smiley face is a key motif in Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen , the crater was chosen as a setting. According to the illustrator Dave Gibbons , the resemblance to a smiley face was too good to be true. The crater is also a location of the action in the movie Watchmen .
See also
Web links
Commons : Martian Crater Galle - Collection of images, videos and audio files
- Feature Information USGS (English)
- Crater Galle in Google Mars (English)
- DLR: The Galle Crater aka "Happy Face" April 10, 2006