SPACE — About 2 million years ago, an asteroid hit Mars and created the Corinto crater. It turns out that a large amount of small debris from the impact formed almost 2 billion other smaller craters on Mars.
The debris created new small craters up to 2,000 km away from the original asteroid impact site. Scientists determined the number of asteroid impact craters using mapping data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
These craters have a minimum size of 10 meters. The researchers presented their findings at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC 2024) in The Woodlands, Texas, in March.
The international research team focused on a crater called Corinto, just north of the Martian equator in Elysium Planitia. Corinto is quite large, about 14 km wide and 1 km deep.
So, when the parent asteroid hit Mars, the collision produced a lot of debris called ejecta. Secondary impacts created smaller craters both inside and outside the main crater.
Researchers used mapping data from the HiRISE and Context Camera (CTX) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to study Corinto.
“Orbital thermal and visual mapping datasets were used to describe the crater, ejecta blanket, four ray faces and secondary craters, and to estimate the impact age and total number of secondary craters,” the paper wrote, reported by Earth Sky.
The researchers examined four different types of craters around Corinto. These groups are referred to as faces. Each group is distinctively different in appearance, largely due to their distance from the Corinto crater.
The craters closest to Corinto are semicircular and do not have their own ejecta. They also have clear edges. However, some of the craters further away look long and narrow.
Studies of the main crater also show that the ground is likely saturated with water ice. As a result, the superheated ice releases gas during impact.
2024-03-31 08:52:59
#Scientists #Find #Billion #Mars #Craters #Result #Asteroid #Collision #Million #Years #Space #Space
