On Thursday, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) revealed that images taken by the “Insight” probe of a huge hole in the … Mars On December 24 last year, it was caused by a meteor-like earthquake that hit the red planet.
At the time, Insight had recorded an earthquake of 4 on the Richter scale. Scientists have linked the seismic discovery to the sight of a new large crater, considering it one of the largest meteorite hits to hit Mars since NASA began observing and studying it.
While camera images of the orbiting vehicle showed the blast area in the crater, allowing scientists to compare it to the earthquake’s epicenter, which was monitored by “Insight,” according to CNN.
pieces of ice
The impact of the meteorites also created a crater containing chunks of ice that was buried near the warm Martian equator, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Science, and this is the latest discovery of ice on the red planet.
The researchers also estimated that the meteorite was between 16 and 39 feet (5 to 12 meters) in diameter. Although it is small enough to burn in the Earth’s atmosphere, this does not happen Mars Which has a thin atmosphere that is only 1% of the density of the Earth’s atmosphere.
When the meteor hit the surface of Mars, it created a crater in the Amazonis Planetia region on its surface, 492 feet (150 meters) wide and 70 feet (21 meters) deep, with material flying out of the crater 23 miles. (37 kilometers) away.
larger nozzle
“This is clearly the largest new crater we’ve ever seen,” Brown University planetary scientist Ingrid Dubard said at a news conference. “We believe that a crater of this size will form somewhere on the planet once every few decades. Maybe once every generation.
“So it was very exciting to be able to witness this event, and it happened while the InSight spacecraft was recording seismic data, which is a real scientific gift,” he added.
He also explained that if an earthquake like this occurred on Earth, it would be large enough to be felt, but not large enough to cause much damage, noting that “about a thousand earthquakes of this size occur on Earth every year, but Mars is less. active of our planet, so it was a very big earthquake for the red planet. “
surface waves
Studying the pieces of ice discovered will help better understand past climatic conditions on Mars and how and when the ice was deposited and buried.
It is reported that the earthquake caused by the impact caused surface waves (seismic wave) that moved along the top of the crust of Mars, while the data sent by the Insight spacecraft will help scientists to study the planet’s crust and learn more about it. more about its structure.
