Yet another gigantic crater has been spotted on the surface of Mars. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) found the crater, which is considered to be the largest new impact site that has ever been seen on Mars.
It was in March 2012 when the crater abruptly appeared on the Red Planet. It is half the length of a football field. Bruce Cantor, a scientist with Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS), was the one, who found the new crater, some two months ago.
Cantor was looking for dust storms and other weather events when he noticed a dark spot on Mars. He with the help of the Mars Color Imager (MARCI), a weather-monitoring camera by MSSS on board the MRO, took the images of the unusual spot on Mars.
"I was doing my usual weather monitoring and something caught my eye. It looked usual, with rays emanating from a central spot", affirmed Cantor. He studied the images from 40 different dates and was able to pinpoint the date when the impact took place.
As per Cantor, the spot was not present through March 27, 2012, but it appeared before the imaging on March 28.
Alfred McEwen, Lead investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) of the University of Arizona, said there is a difference between the biggest crater and the other fresh craters.
The difference is the largest crater spanning 159 by 143 feet is rare and every shallow when compared with other fresh craters. As per NASA officials, the meteor explosion that took place in Chelyabinsk, Russia last year, could be the source of the crater.
The meteor explosion impact in Russia was massive as hundreds of buildings were damaged and more than 1,000 people got injured.
via Science - Google News http://ift.tt/1oKQ88U
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