Bopolu is an

impact crater An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact crater ...

located within the

Meridiani Planum The Meridiani Planum (alternately Meridiani plain, Meridiani plains, Terra Meridiani, or Terra Meridiani plains) is either a large plain straddling the equator of Mars and covered with a vast number of spherules containing a lot of iron oxide or ...

extraterrestrial plain of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

. Bopulu was seen by ''Opportunity'' rover in 2010 in the distance, and with some of its rim visible. Bopoplu was officially named in 2006 along with 31 Mars craters. Research has indicated that the impact that is thought to have created Bopulu went so deep that it went through existing layers and ejected older material from Mars' Noachian period. Bopulu is a diameter wide crater south of the ''Opportunity'' MER-B landing site, a rover which operated in the region starting in 2004 and therefore resulted in greater exploration and study of craters in this region. Bopulu was identified as a possible source for the

Bounce Rock Bounce Rock is a football-sized primarily pyroxene rock found within the Meridiani Planum of the planet Mars. It was discovered and observed by the Mars Exploration Rover ''Opportunity Opportunity may refer to: Places * Opportunity, Montana, ...

ejecta fragment Bounce rock, which was examined by the MER-B rover, was found to be similar in composition to the shergottite class of

Mars meteorite A Martian meteorite is a rock that formed on Mars, was ejected from the planet by an impact event, and traversed interplanetary space before landing on Earth as a meteorite. , 277 meteorites had been classified as Martian, less than half a percen ...

found on Earth (Meteorites found on Earth determined to be from Mars). Bopulu is said be younger than the Burns Formation that predominates in the area. Bopolu has been studied, along with Tooting crater, to try and better understand the geology of Endeavour crater which MER-B rover reached and could explore in situ. Bopolu is named for a town in nation of Liberia (see Bopolu, Africa); the name was approved by the IAU in September 2006. Bopolu crater has a feature ID of 14185. Meridiani Planum PIA13704.jpg, Color-coded for minerals and annotated, Bopolu crater is centered in this image with its distinctive ejecta detected by MRO's CRISM instrument. Nearby is Endeavour crater, reached by MER-B in 2011 Rim of Bopolu Crater 2010.jpg, The rim of Bopolu crater is visible on the horizon of this March 2010 image taken by the Mars rover ''Opportunity''; Bopolu is 65 kilometers (40 miles) away, when the rover was making its traverse to the closer Endeavour crater. PIA14995.jpg, A view of Bopolu crater from the THEMIS instrument on ''

2001 Mars Odyssey ''2001 Mars Odyssey'' is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. The project was developed by NASA, and contracted out to Lockheed Martin, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use ...

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NASA Rim of Bopolu Crater Far to the Southwest of ''Opportunity'' 03.24.10HiRise Dune Monitoring in Bopolu Crater

Merged RGBFlow Ejecta of Prominent Crater in Meridiani PlanumBopolu Crater Ejecta and Southeast Rim of Miyamoto CraterPDF Maps of Mars: Bopolu
Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature {{Portal bar, Solar System Impact craters on Mars Arabia quadrangle

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