Mars is always changing from factors like seasonal variations and wind. The surface of Mar can change from time to time: impacts.

There is a new impact crater that was seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This image was taken on July 24, 2020 and in a previous image of this site taken in 2018, the crater is not there.

This is an example of the benefit of having long-term missions in space, where scientists can see changes like this. The usual procedure for finding new craters is that MRO's Context Camera, orCTX, or cameras on other orbiters identify anomalies that appear in new images and then MRO's HiRISE camera is targeted.

Scientists estimate that Mars gets hit with about 200 impacts per year, but most are small. Data on the size of the crater is not yet available, but the HiRISE team says that follow up images like this one is essential for measuring the crater diameter and determining if there are any small, bright areas indicative of ice.

A recently formed impact crater on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

The crater is located near the equator and the image was taken in the afternoon. White areas are scattered across the entire region if you look at the entire strip of the full image taken by HiRISE.

It is possible that this image was taken using false color. Human eyes view Mars in the same part of the spectrum as the HiRISE camera does. False color imagery illuminates the difference between different materials andtextures according to the HiRISE teams.

There are more details at the HiRISE site.