Meteorites that crashed violently on Mars last year sent seismic waves thousands of miles to the surface of Mars and carved out what NASA considers to be the largest crater ever found.
It is approximately 500 feet in diameter. The discovery was only made possible by data collected from the InSight lander, which measured the earthquakes, and the Mars Exploration Rover provided stunning images of the resulting craters.
The space rocks received were between 16 feet and 40 feet in diameter.
The orbiter’s cameras showed debris ejected up to 25 miles from the impact, as well as white patches of ice around the crater, the most icy water seen in low latitudes.
Imagining the craters “would have been really huge,” said Lilia Busiulova, co-author of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, but matching them with the seismic ripples was an advantage. Mars’ atmosphere is thin, unlike Earth, where the dense atmosphere prevents most space rocks from reaching Earth, and instead fractures and burns them.
A separate study last month linked a recent series of small Martian meteorite collisions with smaller craters closer to InSight, using data from the lander and the orbiter itself.
Observations of the collision come as Insight nears the end of its mission due to its waning power, its solar panels are covered in sandstorms. InSight landed on the tropical plains of Mars in 2018 and has since recorded more than 1,300 earthquakes.
“It will be heartbreaking when we finally lose contact with InSight,” said Bruce Banerdt, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who was involved in the studies. “But the data you sent us will surely keep us busy for years to come.”
Busiulova spotted the crater earlier this year after taking more photos of the area from orbit. The crater was missing from the previous photos and, after reviewing the archives, I identified the impact until December.
Seismic readings indicate a denser Martian crust outside the InSight site.
And future landers from Europe and China will carry more advanced seismographs, the scientists said. Future missions will paint a “clearer picture” of how Mars evolved, write Yingjie Yang and Xiaofei Chen of South China University of Science and Technology.
Collision detections come as InSight nears the end of its mission due to its waning power and its solar panels covered in sandstorms.
