Space Rock Slams into Mars and Reveals Buried Ice

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Christmas came a little early for NASA's InSight mission last December when the lander detected a massive quake on Mars.

Now, scientists know what caused the red planet to rumble. A meteoroid slammed into Mars 2,174 miles (3,500 kilometers) away from the lander and created a fresh impact crater on the Martian surface.

The ground literally moved beneath InSight on December 24, 2021, when the lander recorded a magnitude 4 marsquake. Before and after photos captured from above by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling Mars since 2006, spotted a new crater this past February.

When scientists connected the dots from both missions, they realized it was one of the largest meteoroid strikes on Mars since NASA began studying the red planet. Images from the orbiter's two cameras showed the blast zone of the crater, which allowed scientists to compare it with the epicenter of the quake detected by InSight.

The journal Science published two new studies describing theimpact and its effects on Thursday.

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