These craters were formed by a Sept. 5, 2021, meteoroid impact on Mars, the first to be detected by NASA’s InSight. Taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this enhanced-colour image highlights the dust and soil disturbed by the impact in blue. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.
A seismometer onboard the Mars lander has picked up vibrations from several impacts on the red planet since 2020.
NASA says that over the past two years, four separate impacts were detected by the InSight lander, marking the first time seismic and acoustic waves from a meteor impact have been heard on Mars.
The impacts hit a location on Mars known as Elysium Planitia and were picked up some 85 to 290 kilometres away by the InSight.
On September 5, 2021, the first meteoroid impacted Mars, exploding into three shards that each left a crater says NASA who flew their Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter over to the site to capture images of the craters.
“After three years of InSight waiting to detect an impact, those craters looked beautiful,” said Ingrid Daubar of Brown University, a co-author of the paper and a specialist in Mars impacts.
The three other meteorites made impact between May 2020 and August 2021.
Although scientists were elated to make the discovery, at this point they expected to see more.
“The Red Planet is next to the solar system’s main asteroid belt, which provides an ample supply of space rocks to scar the planet’s surface. Because Mars’ atmosphere is just 1% as thick as Earth’s, more meteoroids pass through it without disintegrating,” said NASA.
While meteoroids have been far and few between, over 1300 marsquakes have been detected by InSight’s seismometer.
They say that now they have known data of an impact and marsquake, it will be easier to differentiate between the two in the future.
“Seismic data offer various clues that will help researchers better understand the Red Planet. Most marsquakes are caused by subsurface rocks cracking from heat and pressure,” said NASA.
“Studying how the resulting seismic waves change as they move through different material provides scientists a way to study Mars’ crust, mantle, and core.”
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