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{{Short description|Crater on Mars}}{{About|the crater on Mars|the lunar crater|Korolev (lunar crater)}}

factoids

GAZETTEER OF PLANETARY NOMENCLATURE {{!, Korolevwebsite=usgs.govInternational Astronomical Union>access-date=4 March 2015}}81.4mi}}Sergei Korolev (1907-1966), Soviet Union>Soviet rocket engineer and designer}}Korolev is an ice-filled impact crater in the Mare Boreum quadrangle of Mars, located at 73° north latitude and 165° east longitude. It is {{convert|81.4|km|mi}} in diameter and contains about {{convert|2200|km3|mi3}} of water ice, comparable in volume to Great Bear Lake in northern Canada.WEB, A winter wonderland in red and white – Korolev Crater on Mars,weblink German Aerospace Center (DLR), 20 December 2018, The crater was named after Sergei Korolev (1907–1966), the head Soviet rocket engineer and designer during the Space Race in the 1950s and 1960s.Korolev crater is located on the Planum Boreum, the northern polar plain which surrounds the north polar ice cap, near the Olympia Undae dune field. The crater rim rises about {{convert|2|km|mi}} above the surrounding plains. The crater floor lies about {{convert|2|km|mi}} below the rim, and is covered by a {{convert|1.8|km|mi}} deep central mound of permanent water ice, up to {{convert|60|km|mi}} in diameter.

Ice formation

The ice is permanently stable because the crater acts as a natural cold trap. The thin Martian air above the crater ice is colder than air surrounding the crater; the colder local atmosphere is also heavier so it sinks to form a protective layer, insulating the ice, shielding it from melting and evaporation.NEWS,weblink The Guardian, December 21, 2018, Mars Express beams back images of ice-filled Korolev crater, 21 December 2018, Sample, Ian, Recent research indicates that the ice deposit formed in place within the crater and was not previously part of a once-larger polar ice sheet.JOURNAL, Brothers, T. Charles, Holt, John W., Three-dimensional structure and origin of a 1.8 km thick ice dome within Korolev Crater, Mars, Geophysical Research Letters, 2016, 43, 4, 1443–1449, 10.1002/2015GL066440, 2016GeoRL..43.1443B, free, The ice in the crater is part of the vast water resources at the poles of the planet.Plan view of Korolev crater.jpg|Natural color view of Korolev crater from Mars ExpressTopography of Korolev crater.jpg|Color-coded topographic view of Korolev crater based on a digital terrain model from Mars Express dataMare Boreum Map.JPG|Map of Mare Boreum quadrangle with major features and craters labeledMars NPArea-PIA00161.jpg|High-resolution image mosaic of Mare Boreum quadrangle from the Viking OrbiterUSGS-Mars-MC-1-MareBoreumRegion-mola.png|High-resolution topographic map of Mare Boreum quadrangle with features and craters labeled, from Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data

In popular culture

In the TV show For All Mankind, Korolev crater is the location of methane deposits that main character Kelly Baldwin seeks to investigate for signs of life.EPISODE, Legacy, For All Mankind, For All Mankind (TV series), December 29, 2023, 4, 8,

See also

• 1855 Korolev, minor planet
• Korolev (lunar crater)
• Louth, another Martian crater with large ice patch

References

{{reflist}}

External links

{{Commons category|Korolev (Martian crater)}}

• {{YouTube|z3fFOCPgNJk|Video (2:56) – Korolev Crater FlyOver}} (Animated; ESA; June 30, 2020)

{{Mars-stub}}{{crater-stub}}{{Geography of Mars}}