Mars has many craters. It now has two new species – uprooted from the rocks that hit the planet late last year.
Mars will be fine. This is not a natural disaster. We do not feel that the earth is new Vulnerable by asteroids. The solar system is full of debris. Mars has a faint atmosphere, and when a meteor arrives flying from space, it is unlikely to burn out before hitting the surface.
But what baffled the scientists – so much so that NASA decided to hold a press conference on Thursday to highlight the discovery, detailed in two parts. Leaves published In Science – is that the effects of crater creation have been documented by two NASA spacecraft, an orbiter and a lander. This was a great show for bringing together scientific resources, with one providing a glimpse into impact events while the other providing an ear.
The result is an extraordinary set of data on the interior of Mars, a topic of great interest to planetary scientists who want to understand why this rocky world that could have been hotter and wetter 4 billion years ago turned into a frozen desert. with no sign of life.
This was also a record-breaking event: the largest impact crater formation on a rocky inner planet ever documented in the solar system was documented in real time, according to Philippe Legnone, lead author of one of the newly published research papers.
The new crater is about 150 yards wide and about 21 yards deep, and formed so violently that it hurled boulders 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) from the collision, according to Lilia Pociolova, senior scientist at Malin Space Science Systems. NASA with two cameras Mars reconnaissance vehicle.
The probe often sees the results of small collisions, leaving an advantage in the maximum diameter of a few meters. But what Busiulova’s team scientists saw in February was by far the largest crater the spacecraft had ever discovered. In fact, it was so large that it almost went unnoticed.
“It’s a huge, huge advantage. You’ve been trained to see small features. Your eyes look for spots, said Busiulova.
The crater was spotted on February 11, but scientists knew they had more images of the Martian surface obtained daily and went back in time to search for the crater when the crater first appeared.
Busiulova recalled that another spacecraft on Mars, NASA InSight Landing VehicleA major quake was spotted on Christmas Eve, which was parked on the surface for four years to monitor seismic activity. Suddenly everything aligned. The first appearance of the crater in the orbiter images coincided with the seismic signal recorded by the surface instrument.
The seismic data can then be analyzed in the context of the distance to the impact. This helped improve existing models from within Mars, Lugnona said.
Busiulova said the larger of the two craters could be the result of an object between 5 and 12 yards in diameter. You said such an object would likely burn in Earth’s atmosphere if it collided with our planet.
He said the origin of the meteorites is unknown, but it’s possible they came from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
“These effects are very significant, but we can continue to sleep well on the floor,” Lugnona said. Our atmosphere protects us.
