Here’s a Fresh, Never Before Seen Impact Crater on Mars
Impact crater
on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/UA
by FRASER CAIN
The surface
of Mars is a well worn place in the Solar System, heavily pounded by countless
meteor impacts. And some of these craters are hundreds of millions of years
old. So it’s unusual for there to be a completely fresh impact on the surface
of Mars: but that’s just what NASA scientists discovered looking through a
recent batch of images returned from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
No crater…
then crater. Credit: NASA/JPL/UA
The crater
itself is circular, but the blast of ejecta indicates that the object came in
from the West, and struck the surface of Mars, blasting out a curtain of
pulverized rock that covered the nearby surface. The impactor would have
vaporized into a fireball of superheated rock, like a nuclear bomb exploding on
the surface of Mars, while the eject blanket was shot out to the side. Read More >>
Source: http://www.universetoday.com/118073/heres-a-fresh-never-before-seen-impact-crater-on-mars/
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