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NASA InSight detects strongest meteorite hit to Mars yet
NASA’s InSight Mars rover detected a magnitude-4 earthquake on Dec. 24 last year, which scientists later learned was caused by a meteorite impact. This is the strongest meteorite impact on Mars on record (www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-insight-lander-detects-stunning-meteoroid-impact-on-mars), leaving a diameter of nearly 150 The 21-meter-deep crater exposes large chunks of water ice below the Martian surface. The study was published Thursday in the journal Science. Since InSight landed on Mars in 2018, it has recorded more than 1,300 Martian earthquakes, none of which were larger in magnitude than the one caused by the meteorite impact. The meteorites that hit Mars were between 5 and 12 meters in diameter. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured images of craters left by the impact. The images showed large chunks of subsurface ice outcropping near the crater, with debris from the impact falling as far as 40 kilometers away from the crater.
