Top Results for Ray Crater

Coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific are home to the reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi), a large filter-feeding ray that is smaller than the giant oceanic manta. Individuals commonly measure several meters across, with disc widths around three to five meters, although larger specimens occur. Broad fins a...

On Jupiter's moon Callisto, Valhalla forms a vast impact structure distinguished by rings around a brighter central region. The concentric features extend across thousands of kilometers, making the full ring system much broader than the central impact area alone. Its appearance records how Callisto'...

An ancient river delta gives Jezero Crater on Mars much of its scientific importance. Water once carried sediment into a lake within this impact crater, leaving deposits that record conditions after the crater formed. Associated with early Martian history and the Noachian period, Jezero allows resea...

Concentric mountain rings make Orientale one of the Moon's distinctive large impact basins. Located near the western limb, it is partly hidden from Earth and is more fully revealed by spacecraft observations. The overall basin spans roughly 930 kilometers, far more than the 120 kilometers stated in...

Spread across the Moon's farside, the South Pole-Aitken Basin is an enormous ancient impact basin roughly 2,500 kilometers across. It is among the largest known impact structures in the solar system, but describing it as the largest known crater anywhere is too definite. Its name links the lunar sou...

Tycho is a large impact crater located on the Moon’s nearside. It stands out due to its expansive ray system, a bright, radiating pattern formed by ejected material during the initial impact. This crater, named after astronomer Tycho Brahe, offers scientists valuable insights into lunar geology and...

Buried beneath Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and extending offshore, Chicxulub is a large impact structure associated with the asteroid strike at the end of the Cretaceous. Its significance comes from the connection between that collision and the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction, when roughly three...

Mobula mobular, known as the giant devil ray or spinetail devil ray, has a broad, diamond-shaped body and winglike pectoral fins. It belongs to the mobulid rays and lives in open water, including the Mediterranean. Under its current broader classification, its distribution also extends through tropi...

Rheasilvia occupies a large part of the southern hemisphere of Vesta, an asteroid with a differentiated rocky interior. Approximately 500 kilometers across, the impact basin is remarkable for its size relative to Vesta itself. A prominent central mountain rises inside it, providing a visible record...

Inside Gale Crater on Mars, the layered mountain Aeolis Mons, also called Mount Sharp, rises from the crater floor. The surrounding impact structure preserves a long geological record rather than only the moment of its formation. Gale dates to the early history of Mars, around the transition between...

Mare Imbrium occupies a broad impact basin on the Moon's nearside and forms one of the large dark areas visible from Earth. A major collision created the basin approximately 3.85 billion years ago. Later volcanic activity filled much of its interior with basaltic lava, producing the mare, or lunar p...

The Vredefort Dome is a massive impact crater formed approximately 2.03 billion years ago during Earth’s Precambrian era. It represents one of the oldest and largest confirmed impact structures globally. Located in South Africa, its immense size—over 300 kilometers across—highlights the violent even...

Known as the polka-dot stingray, the Xingu river ray belongs to the freshwater stingray family Potamotrygonidae and is associated with Brazil's Xingu River basin. Its dark, flattened disc carries contrasting pale spots, giving it a recognizable appearance among South American river rays. Unlike mari...

The ornate eagle ray (*Aetomylaeus vespertilio*) is a large species of cartilaginous fish native to the Indo-West Pacific region. It is distinguished by its striking, reticulated dorsal pattern and a remarkably long, broad snout. This rare species typically inhabits coastal and offshore marine envir...

Herschel is a large impact crater prominently located on Mimas, one of Saturn’s moons. The crater represents an ancient collision that profoundly shaped the moon's surface. It accounts for approximately one-third of Mimas’ diameter, creating its recognizable, star-like appearance. Scientists study H...

Barringer Meteor Crater is a well-preserved impact crater located in Winslow, Arizona. Formed by a meteorite approximately 50,000 years ago, it represents one of the best examples of a preserved impact site on Earth. The crater’s size and clarity make it valuable for geological study and provides an...

The spotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari) is a large, distinctive elasmobranch found circumtropically, easily identified by its white-spotted dark dorsal surface and long whip-like tail bearing venomous spines.

Caloris Basin is a gigantic impact crater located on Mercury’s surface. It represents one of the most significant geological events in the planet's early history, formed approximately 3.8 billion years ago when a massive asteroid struck. The basin measures roughly 1,550 kilometers across and exhibit...

Hellas Planitia is a colossal impact basin located on Mars’s surface. It represents the largest known crater in our solar system, measuring approximately 2300 kilometers across and reaching a depth of 7000 meters. This Noachian-era feature provides scientists with valuable insights into early Martia...

Tsiolkovskiy is a large impact crater located on the far side of the Moon. Its defining feature is a 180-kilometer diameter basin filled with dark basaltic lava flows. This crater provides scientists with valuable data regarding early solar system impacts and lunar geology. It’s primarily studied by...

Giant freshwater stingray (Urogymnus polylepis) is a critically endangered species native to Southeast Asian rivers, considered one of the largest freshwater fish in the world with disc widths exceeding 2 m.

Bright blue spots on a tan, oval disc identify Taeniura lymma, commonly called the bluespotted stingray or bluespotted ribbontail ray. This cartilaginous fish inhabits shallow Indo-Pacific waters, especially coral reef areas and nearby sandy feeding grounds. Its pattern makes it visually distinctive...

Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve is a sheltered marine site on the southeastern coast of Oʻahu, formed in a volcanic crater open to the sea. Hawaiʻi designated its waters as the state’s first Marine Life Conservation District in October 1967, prohibiting the taking or removal of marine life and other mar...

The tiger stingray is the common name for Potamotrygon tigrina, a freshwater ray in the family Potamotrygonidae. It is native to the upper Amazon basin in Peru, and its name refers to the orange-and-black coloration and banded tail that distinguish it from other South American river stingrays; the s...

The ocellate eagle ray (Aetobatus ocellatus) is a large cartilaginous fish found in coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific region. It is characterized by a dark dorsal surface marked with distinctive white, ring-shaped spots and a long, whip-like tail. Like other eagle rays, it possesses flattened, crus...

The bluespotted ribbontail ray (*Taeniura lymma*) is a species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae, widely distributed across the Indo-Pacific region and the Red Sea. It is easily identified by its oval-shaped pectoral fin disc, which features bright, neon-blue spots over a yellowish to olive-brown...

The largetooth sawfish (*Pristis pristis*) is a critically endangered species of ray belonging to the family Pristidae, found historically in tropical and subtropical coastal waters globally. It is characterized by its long, flattened snout lined with lateral teeth, which it uses to slash at schools...

The bluespotted ribbontail ray (*Taeniura lymma*) is a cartilaginous fish belonging to the stingray family Dasyatidae, native to the Indo-Pacific and the Red Sea. The ray is recognizable by the vibrant blue spots covering its yellow-olive body and its distinctive striped tail. It is a bottom-dwellin...

Asgard is a substantial impact basin located on Jupiter’s moon Callisto. It represents one of the largest ancient features on the satellite's surface. The basin’s prominent central palimpsest and extensive multi-ring structure—reaching approximately 1700 kilometers in diameter—offer valuable insight...