A crashing meteor Mars on December 24 of last year the vehicle was taken over Intuition belonging to the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) caused a magnitude 4 earthquake.
Launch France 24, InSight detected the earthquake through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). MRO then took photos of the newly formed crater due to the meteorite impact less than 24 hours later.
The photos produced by MRO are also impressive. The photo shows several blocks of ice jumping to the surface of the planet around a hole 150 meters wide and 21 meters deep.
This crater is the largest since MRO orbited Mars 16 years ago. Although the impact of a meteorite on Mars is not uncommon, researchers are still amazed to see this photo.
“We never thought we would see such a big hole,” said Ingrid Daubar, who works on the InSight and MRO missions.
Researchers estimate that the meteor itself measures about 4.8 x 11 meters. On Earth, the meteor will break apart in the atmosphere before reaching the ground.
“Simply put, this is the largest meteor impact on the planet’s surface we’ve heard of since the natural sciences made seismographs and seismometers,” said planetary science professor Philippe Lognonne.
NASA released a sound recording of the collision, which was created by accelerating the vibrations produced by a seismometer.
This information is believed to help add deeper knowledge of the interior of Mars and the history of its formation. One example is the presence of ice that surprised the researchers.
“This is the hottest spot on Mars, the closest to the equator, we’ve seen water ice,” Daubar said.
Furthermore, this discovery also prompted NASA’s Division of Planetary Sciences Director, Lori Glaze, to want to send astronauts as soon as possible.
“We want to land astronauts as close as possible to Mars’ equator. Ice can be converted into water, oxygen or hydrogen,” he said.
On the other hand, the researchers involved in this mission published the results of their research in the journal Science. More than 50 researchers were involved in writing the article titled The largest recent impact craters on Mars: orbital imaging and surface seismic co-investigation.
(lesimo)
