Professor of Mathematics

Paata Ivanisvili

Department of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine

Candidate 7: West of the volcano Albor Tholus, Elysium Planitia

Strong · roughly 80%

Two CTX close-ups of the same 600 by 600 m of lava plains west of Albor Tholus, from May 2014 and August 2025. A very dark compact spot near the arrow, and a fainter one up and to the left, are present only in 2025. — The same 600 × 600 m in May 2014 and August 2025, under the same sun. The arrow marks the main spot; the faint companion is up and to the left. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

What changed. A compact, very dark spot 25 to 30 m across appeared on these lava plains between mid-2022 and April 2025. A fainter new companion lies 195 m away. The spot is absent in 2014 under exactly the same sun angle, and unchanged in four images over seven months.

Why it may be a new impact. Two new spots this close together are the usual sign of an impactor that fragmented on the way down.

Location: 16.884° N, 147.869° E
Absent: 22 May 2014 and 28 July 2022
Present: four images from 10 April 2025 to 28 November 2025
Size: Dark spot 25 to 30 m across, with a fainter companion 195 m away
Confidence: Strong candidate; roughly 80% that it is a new impact.
Nearby: Candidate 10, 13 km away.
Caveat: It lies outside every footprint of the high-resolution HiRISE camera. It lies in the area of a catalogue of new impacts near the InSight lander (Bickel et al. 2025) that could not be downloaded, so it can only be inferred that the catalogue does not list it. Like every candidate here, it is unconfirmed: see the caveat.