With the help of NASA’s InSight mission, a global study team discovered four brand-new craters on the surface of Mars that were the result of impacts. The team was able to calculate and validate the impact positions using information from a seismometer and images obtained from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The mechanics of an impact on Mars have never before been recorded by experts. The findings were released in the journal Nature Geoscience on September 19, 2022.
The atmosphere and surface of any planet can be altered by meteoroids and other spacecraft projectiles through impact, according to Nicholas Schmerr, an associate professor of geology at the University of Maryland and a co-author of the study. On Earth, where these objects can whiz through the atmosphere, strike the earth, and leave a crater in their wake, we have witnessed this. But because Mars has a far thinner atmosphere than Earth, we have never been able to fully understand the physics of an impact there.
Acoustic waves (sound waves that move through fluid or gas) and seismic waves are produced as space projectiles hit the earth and enter the planetary atmosphere (waves that travel through a solid medium). Schmerr and his InSight mission colleagues observed the peculiar physics governing the projectile movements and used these waves, detected by the SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) instrument on InSight mission, to predict the approximate positions of the ensuing impact sites. After that, the researchers checked the models’ locations and accuracy by comparing their best guesses to pictures taken by high-resolution cameras.
These results show that the source of seismic activity can be determined using planetary seismology, which is the study of earthquakes and associated phenomena like volcanic eruptions. Schmerr says that if astronomers measure how often new impacts happen in the inner solar system, which is where Mars and Earth are, they might be able to learn more about the number of potentially dangerous objects like asteroids and pieces of rock that are close to Earth.
These strikes’ related acoustic and seismic waves are also crucial for understanding the Martian atmosphere and interior, since photographs may be used to pinpoint the exact position of the impacts. Scientists will be able to learn vital details about the planet, such as the size and rigidity of its core or its heating processes, with a better understanding of the locations of marsquakes. Schmerr and other geophysicists believe that recent developments in planetary seismology will make it possible for them to better understand the tectonic processes that underlie seismic activity on Mars. In the end, the discoveries advance our understanding of planetary origins and evolution.
Schmerr stated, “Understanding how impacts operate on Mars is like opening a window into the basic mechanisms of how terrestrial planets evolve.” This characteristic is shared by all planets in the inner solar system, including Earth. ”
A robotic lander built by NASA called InSight is intended to investigate Mars’ internal structure. The InSight mission should keep going as long as the lander, which has been working since 2018, can keep gathering energy from the sun.
