Two NASA spacecraft on Mars have captured the largest meteor craters ever seen. The work, published in the journal Science, could help solve a centuries-old mystery about the geography of Mars.
In late 2021, a meteor crashed on Mars and shook the planet so much that NASA’s InSight lander recorded the sounds. Scientists didn’t know where the earthquake came from until they captured images of the new impact crater with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA’s spacecraft that captured the Red Planet from orbit.
THE NEW BIGGEST CRATER EVER
NASA announced the discovery on Thursday. According to the news in TRT Haber; Ingrid Daubar, leader of impact science at InSight, said at a news conference. “We knew right away that this was the largest new crater we had ever seen.” She said.
DETECTED FOR THE FIRST TIME ON A PLANET OUTSIDE THE EARTH
Among the more than 1,300 earthquakes detected by InSight, scientists have identified another tremor due to the impact of a meteorite. Two meteors produced seismic waves at the surface. This had never been detected on a planet other than Earth before.
Prior to these meteor attacks, all earthquakes detected by InSight originated from deep underground and produced what seismologists call “body waves” rather than surface waves.
THE MYSTERY OF MARS CAN BE SOLVED
Their findings from these meteorite impacts, published in two studies published Thursday in the journal Science, could help solve a centuries-old mystery about the geography of Mars.
As astronomers studied Mars, they wondered why the northern and southern hemisphere looked so different.
The north is flat and the south is full of mountains.
