Sunset on Mars. Martian landscape, impact craters on Mars. 3D illustration
At the end of April, a picture of a Martian crater was taken and published in June, which eerily resembles a huge, creepy human eye. It was taken by an orbiting probe, and it looks like the impact crater is staring down at Europe’s orbiting Mars Express probe. What kind of crater is this? And was it created by the bombardment of our Solar System?
Satellite images can help us better understand the geology and history of Mars. A camera on board the European Space Agency’s Mars Express probe captured images of a large crater on the Red Planet that may be about 18.6 kilometers in diameter (some sources say 30 km). Although it has not yet been named, it looks like a human eye. It is precisely because of this that he attracted attention, because his drawing really resembles a ghostly human eye.
The crater is located in the southern hemisphere of Mars. This area is named Aonia Terra, it is very strongly cratered and the new discovery is therefore definitely not the only one. But the fact remains that even if it is not the most impressive crater that has been seen on Mars, its resemblance to the human eye is striking. In addition to this crater-eye, there is also the well-known Lowell crater in its vicinity, which measures an incredible 200 kilometers on average.
Watch the new video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O8h0payTc4
–
Source: Youtube
Solar system under fire
In the end European Space Agency (ESA) took an image of an as-yet-unnamed crater on Mars on April 25, which was then published in an ESA blog post on June 8. The image shows a large city-sized crater on the red planet’s surface far below the camera of ESA’s Mars Express probe. However, the image is not so good, and maybe because of this, the crater looks like a huge human eye looking up at the stars. The entire area is cratered, with smaller craters and flat points appearing south of the crater, while the area further north is smoother and paler in color.
The image sparked a heated debate on Twitter. Some Twitter users have compared the “Mars eye” to a similar geological formation on Earth called the “Eye of the Sahara”. The craters are thought to have formed billions of years ago as a result of a massive impact of space rocks. Scientists like to study this area of Martian craters because impacts can reveal material deep in the planet’s interior that might not be obvious elsewhere.
Today, scientists believe that Lowell Crater and many other craters in this Martian region were gouged by massive impacts about 4 billion years ago. This period could be called the “tumultuous period of the early Solar System”, which was later called the Late Heavy Bombardment. Earth was also bombarded at that time, which is why we think today that water and organic compounds were put on it. However, this cannot be proven, as atmospheric and seismic processes have erased most of the evidence from the surface of our planet.
Oko crater
Although the crater has not yet been named, it is officially called the Eye. It lies in terrain carved by channels that likely created rivers of liquid water flowing over the surface billions of years ago. As the channel morphology suggests, traces of darker material are evident. Additionally, some channels appear elevated due to deposits of erosion-resistant material. These deposits remain here even after the river walls are washed away by wind storms.
In the center of the crater, darker material is visible in the form of a shadowy, undulating dune, and then conical mounds and buttes, so the crater acted as a catch basin for the accumulation of material.
Check out the strange polygons photographed by NASA on Mars. Where did they come from?
reading for 4 minutes
–
–
–
–
We have evidence on Mars
Compared to Earth, Mars is barren and geologically much calmer. As a result, evidence remains to this day that allows us to understand this more tumultuous period in the history of the Solar System. One of these interesting places is the region of Aonia Terra, where, thanks to large craters, we can look under the surface of the planet and reveal hints about the composition of Mars.
The new geology and composition of the surface are shown in this new image, which shows just how complex and diverse the composition of the surface is.
The crater will be further explored, but other, more advanced technologies need to be used. But some space enthusiasts have already commented on Twitter that the crater is the “pupil” of Mars. “Mars sleeps with one eye open! This scarred and, by Martian standards, colorful landscape shows part of Aonia Terra, a ridge in the southern highlands of Mars,” tweeted one fan.
Resources:
www.sciencealert.com, nypost.com, www.space.com
–
:quality(80)/cdn-kiosk-api.telegraaf.nl/59af3d6a-fc69-11ec-a1e8-0255c322e81b.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
