Two NASA spacecraft at Mars — one on the surface and the other in orbit — have recorded the biggest meteor strikes and impact craters yet.
In this image made available by NASA on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022, boulder-size blocks of water ice are seen around the rim of an impact crater on Mars, as viewed by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The crater was formed Dec. 24, 2021, by a meteoroid strike in the Amazonis Planitia region.
Imaging the craters “would have been huge already,” but matching it to the seismic ripples was a bonus, said co-author Liliya Posiolova of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. “We were so lucky.” “It’s going to be heartbreaking when we finally lose communication with InSight,” said Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the lander's chief scientist who took part in the studies. “But the data it has sent us will certainly keep us busy for years to come."The incoming space rocks were between 16 feet and 40 feet in diameter, said Posiolova. The impacts registered about magnitude 4.
Scientists also learned the lander and orbiter teamed up for an earlier meteoroid strike, more than double the distance of the December one and slightly smaller.The seismic readings from the two impacts indicate a denser Martian crust beyond InSight’s location.
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