Biggest meteor strike on Mars

By: My space stories By: My space stories

Two NASA spacecraft, one pn surface and one in space, recorded the biggest meteor strike yet.

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The Insight lander measured the seismic shocks, while the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provided stunning pictures of the resulting craters.

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Mars' atmosphere is thin unlike on Earth, where the thick atmosphere prevents most space rocks from reaching the ground, instead breaking and incinerating them.

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InSight landed on the equatorial plains of Mars in 2018 and has since recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes.

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Incoming space rocks were between 16 feet and 40 feet (5 meters and 12 meters) in diameter, said Posiolova. The impacts registered about magnitude 4.

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The larger of the two struck last December some 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) from InSight, creating a crater roughly 70 feet (21 meters) deep.

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The orbiter's cameras showed debris hurled up to 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the impact, as well as white patches of ice around the crater.

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Biggest meteor strike on Mars

Biggest meteor strike on Mars

Two NASA spacecraft, one pn surface and one in space, recorded the biggest meteor strike yet.

Two spacecraft recorded

Two spacecraft recorded

The Insight lander measured the seismic shocks, while the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provided stunning pictures of the resulting craters.

Mars' atmosphere is thin unlike on Earth, where the thick atmosphere prevents most space rocks from reaching the ground, instead breaking and incinerating them.

InSight landed on the equatorial plains of Mars in 2018 and has since recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes.

Incoming space rocks were between 16 feet and 40 feet (5 meters and 12 meters) in diameter, said Posiolova. The impacts registered about magnitude 4.

The larger of the two struck last December some 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) from InSight, creating a crater roughly 70 feet (21 meters) deep.

The orbiter's cameras showed debris hurled up to 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the impact, as well as white patches of ice around the crater.

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