Artist’s impression of the December 24, 2021 meteorite impact in the Amazonis Planitia region on Mars. Credit: © IPGP -CNES – N. Starter
Researchers determined the quake resulted from a meteoroid impact when they spotted a new, yawning crater in before-and-after images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Offering a rare opportunity to see how a large impact shook the ground on Mars, the event and its effects are detailed in two scientific papers published on Thursday, October 27, in the peer-reviewed journal Science.
Boulder-size blocks of water ice can be seen around the rim of an impact crater on Mars, as viewed by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE camera) aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The crater was formed on December 24, 2021, by a meteoroid strike in the Amazonis Planitia region. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
It is estimated that the meteoroid spanned 16 to 39 feet (5 to 12 meters). This is small enough that it would have burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, but not in Mars’ thin atmosphere, which is only 1% as dense as our planet’s. The impact, in a region called Amazonis Planitia, blasted out a crater approximately 492 feet (150 meters) across and 70 feet (21 meters) deep. Some of the ejecta thrown by the impact flew as far as 23 miles (37 kilometers) away.
With images and seismic data documenting the event, this is believed to be one of the largest craters ever witnessed forming any place in the solar system. Many larger craters exist on the Red Planet, but they are significantly older and were formed before any Mars mission.
This meteoroid impact crater on Mars was discovered using the black-and-white Context Camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The Context Camera took these before-and-after images of the impact, which occurred on December 24, 2021, in a region of Mars called Amazonis Planitia. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“It’s unprecedented to find a fresh impact of this size,” said Ingrid Daubar of Brown University, who leads InSight’s Impact Science Working Group. “It’s an exciting moment in geologic history, and we got to witness it.”
Due to dust settling on its solar panels, InSight has seen its power drastically decline in recent months. Currently, the spacecraft is expected to shut down within the next six weeks, bringing the mission’s science to an end.
This video includes a seismogram and sonification of signals recorded by NASA’s InSight Mars lander, which detected a giant meteoroid strike on December 24, 2021, the 1,094th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Credit: NASA/
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The impact crater, formed December 24, 2021, by a meteoroid strike in the Amazonis Planitia region of Mars, is about 490 feet (150 meters) across, as seen in this annotated image taken by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE camera) aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Crater Hunters
In late 2021, InSight scientists reported to the rest of the team they had detected a major marsquake on December 24. On February 11, 2022, the crater was first spotted by scientists working at Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS), which built and operates two cameras aboard MRO. The Context Camera (CTX) provides black-and-white, medium-resolution images, while the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) produces daily maps of the entire planet, allowing scientists to track large-scale weather changes like the recent regional dust storm that further diminished InSight’s solar power.
The impact’s blast zone was visible in MARCI data which allowed the team to pin down a 24-hour period within which the impact occurred. These observations correlated with the seismic epicenter, conclusively demonstrating that a meteoroid impact caused the large marsquake on December 24.
This animation depicts a flyby of a meteoroid impact crater on Mars that is surrounded by rock-sized chunks of ice. The animation was created using data from the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
“The impact image was unlike any I had seen before, with the massive crater, exposed ice and dramatic blast zone preserved in Martian dust,” said Liliya Posiolova, who leads the science and orbital operations group at the MSSS. “I couldn’t help but imagine what it must have been like to witness the impact, the atmospheric explosion and the ejected debris miles away.”
Establishing the rate at which craters appear on Mars is key to refining the planet’s geological timeline. On older surfaces, like those of Mars and our Moon, there are more craters than here on Earth. Indeed, on our planet, the processes of erosion and plate tectonics erase the older characteristics of the surface.
New craters also expose material below the surface. In this case, large chunks of ice dispersed by the impact were visualized by the MRO’s HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) color camera.
Underground ice will be a vital resource for astronauts, who could use it for a variety of needs, including drinking water, agriculture and rocket propellant. Buried ice has never been spotted so close to the Martian equator. This is particularly important because, as the hottest part of Mars, it is an attractive place for landing astronauts.
References:
“The largest recent impact craters on Mars: orbital imaging and surface seismic co-investigation” by LV Posiolova, P. Lognonné, WB Banerdt, J. Clinton, GS Collins, T. Kawamura, S. Ceylon, IJ Daubar , B. Fernando, 2005; Froment M, Giardini D, Malin MC, Miljkovic K, Stähler SC, Xu Z, Banks ME, É. Beucler, BA Cantor, C Charalambous, N Dahmen, P Davis, M Drilleau, CM Dundas, C Duran, F Euchner, RF Garcia, M Golombek, A Horleston, C Keegan, A Khan, D. Kim, C. Larmat, R . Lorenz, L. Margerin, S. Menina, M. Panning, C. Pardo, C. Perrin, WT Rougier, G. Speth, A. Spiga, A. Stott, D. Susko, NA Teanby, A. Valeh, A. Werynski, N. Wójcicka and G. Zenhäusern, October 27, 2022, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abq7704
“Surface waves and crustal structure on Mars” by D. Kim, WB Banerdt, S. Ceylon, D. Giardini, V. Lekic, P. Lognonné, C. Beghein, É.[ PubMed ]Beucler, S, Carrasco, C, Charalambous, J, Clinton, M, Drilleau, C, Durán, M, Golombek, R, Joshi, A, Khan, B, Knapmeyer-Endrun, J, Li, R, Maguire, WT Pike , H Samuel, M Schimmel, NC Schmerr, SC Stähler, E Stutzmann, M Wieczorek, Z Xu, A Batov, E Bozdag, N Dahmen, P Davis, T Gudkova, A Horleston, Huang Q, Kawamura T, King SD, McLennan SM, Nimmo F, Plasman M, Plesa AC, Stepanova IE, Weidner E, Zenhäusern G, Daubar IJ, Fernando B, Garcia RF, Posiolova LV and MP Panning, October 27, 2022, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abq7157
Learn more about assignments
JPL manages InSight and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery program, operated by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the InSight spacecraft (including its cruiser stage and lander), and supports spacecraft operations for both missions.
Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates the Pop-up Camera and MARCI Camera. The University of Arizona built and operates the HiRISE camera.
Several European partners, including the French National Center for Space Studies (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), support the InSight mission. CNES provided the SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris). Important contributions to SEIS have come from the IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) in Switzerland; Imperial College London and the University of Oxford in the UK; and JPL. The DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Center for Space Research (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. The Spanish Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) provided the temperature and wind sensors, and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) provided a passive laser retroreflector.