A giant, city-size "butterfly" that was carved into the surface of Mars millions of years ago just got a new photo op thanks to European Space Agency (ESA) scientists. The beautiful Martian bug, which sports a pair of smooth rocky wings, is a stunning reminder of the Red Planet's violent and watery past, experts say.
The so-called butterfly is an asymmetrical impact crater, created when a hefty asteroid smashed into Mars in the distant past at an unusually low angle. It is located in the Idaeus Fossae region — an extremely uneven and previously volcanic region in Mars' northern lowlands — and is around 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) from east to west and 9.3 miles (15 km) from north to south. This makes the crater almost large enough to fit the island of Manhattan across its floor.
