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NASA's InSight Mars Lander Detects Striking Meteoroid Impact on Red Planet
NASA's InSight Mars Lander Detects Striking Meteoroid Impact on Red Planet
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octobre 22, 2022
Artist’s impression of the meteorite impact in the Amazonis Planitia region of Mars on December 24, 2021. Credit: © IPGP -CNES – N. Initial
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 is on December 24, 2021, at the 1,094th anniversary of the mission. It includes a seismogram and sonification of signals recorded by NASA’s InSight Mars lander, which detected a giant meteoroid strike on or to the Martian day. Credit: NASA/[{” attribute=””>JPL-Caltech/CNES/
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 an overpass of a meteoroid impact crater on Mars surrounded by boulder-sized chunks of ice. The animation was created using data from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
“The image of the impact was unlike anything I’ve seen before, with the massive crater, exposed ice and dramatic eruption zone preserved in Martian dust,” said Liliya Posiolova, who leads the Orbital Science and Operations Group at MSSS. “I couldn’t help imagining what it was like to witness the crash, the atmospheric explosion, and the debris being thrown for miles.”
Determining the rate at which craters appear on Mars is crucial to improving the planet’s geological timeline. Older surfaces like Mars and our Moon have more craters than on Earth. This is because processes of erosion and plate tectonics on our planet have erased old features from the surface.
New craters also reveal materials below the surface. In this case, large chunks of ice dispersed by the impact were imaged by MRO’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) color camera.
Ground ice will be a vital resource for astronauts, who can use it for a variety of needs, including drinking water, agriculture, and rocket fuel. Buried ice has never been seen this close to the Martian equator. This is especially important because as the hottest part of Mars, it is an attractive place for astronauts to land.
References:
LV Posiolova, P. Lognonné, WB Banerdt, J. Clinton, GS Collins, T. Kawamura, S. Ceylan, IJ Daubar, B. Fernando, “Largest post-impact craters on Mars: Orbital imaging and surface seismic joint investigation” M. Froment, D. Giardini, MC Malin, K. Miljkovic, SC Stähler, Z. Xu, ME Banks, É. Beucler, BA Cantor, C. Charalambous, N. Dahmen, P. Davis, M. Drilleau, CM Dundas, C. Durán, 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 Pike, M. Plasman, A. Rajšic, L. Rolland, E. Rougier, G. Speth, A. Spiga, A. Stott, D. Susko, NA Teanby, A. Valeh, A. Werynski, N. Wójcicka and G. Zenhäusern, 27 October 2022, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abq7704
D. Kim, WB Banerdt, S. Ceylan, D. Giardini, V. Lekic, P. Lognonné, C. Beghein, É. 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 , Q. Huang, T. Kawamura, SD King, SM McLennan, F. Nimmo, M. Plasman, AC Plesa, IE Stepanova, E. Weidner, G. Zenhäusern, IJ Daubar, B. Fernando, RF Garcia, LV Posiolova, and MP Scroll, October 27, 2022, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abq7157
More About Missions
JPL manages InSight and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, InSight spacecraft (including the cruise stage and lander) and supports spacecraft operations for both missions.
Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates the Context Camera and the MARCI camera. The University of Arizona manufactures and operates the HiRISE camera.
A number of European partners support the InSight mission, including France’s Center National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). CNES provided NASA with the Seismic Experiment for Internal Structure (SEIS) instrument with principal investigator at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris). Significant contributions to SEIS came from IPGP; Max Planck Solar System Research Institute (MPS) in Germany; Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in Switzerland; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument with significant contributions from the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Astronika Space Research Center (CBK) in Poland. Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) provided the temperature and wind sensors, and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) provided a passive laser reflector.
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