Galle (Martian crater)

Galle
	Photographed by the Mars Global Surveyor, 1999-03-10
Planet	Mars
Coordinates	Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Diameter	230.0 km
Eponym	Johann Gottfried Galle

Galle is a crater on Mars. It is located on the eastern rim of the huge impact basin Argyre Planitia in Argyre quadrangle. It is named after the astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle. Galle is often known as the "happy face crater" because the illusion of a smiley is created by a curved mountain range in the southern part of the crater and two smaller mountain clusters further north. The formation was first photographed by Viking Orbiter 1.

A second "happy face crater", smaller than Galle and located at 45.1°S, 55.0°W in Nereidum Montes, was discovered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on January 28, 2008.^[1]

Appearance in Watchmen

As the smiley is a key motif in the comic book Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the crater was used as a story location after the coincidence was noted by Gibbons. According to Gibbons, the similarity "was almost too good to be true. I worried that if we put it in, people would never believe it."^[2] The crater also appears in the same scene during the film adaptation.

Gallery

East side of Galle Crater, as seen by CTX camera (on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter).
Part of Galle Crater, as seen by CTX camera (on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter). The right eye and mouth are labeled. One of two dune fields is labeled as well.
Gullies on mounds and dunes in Galle Crater, as seen by CTX camera (on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter). Note this is an enlargement of previous photo.
Layered deposit in Galle Crater, as seen by CTX camera (on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter). Note: this is an enlargement of a previous image.
Old glaciial flows and gullies on eastern side of Galle Crater, as seen by CTX camera (on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter). Note: this is an enlargement of the previous photo.
Dunes and dust devil tracks in Galle Crater, as seen by CTX camera (on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter).