An object left a big gash on Mars. It also spawned a quake.
Quakes shake Mars all the time. But many of these temblors originate in outer space. NASA's InSight lander recorded over 1,300 marsquakes between 2018 and 2022, including some monster temblors. Now, a novel analysis paired imagery captured by Mars-orbiting spacecraft with these unprecedented seismic detections to show that impacts on Mars aren't just common — they also commonly shake the Red Planet. "Not one, but two recent related papers in the Geophysical Research Letters scientific journal suggest that quite a few of the seismic events recorded by InSight, previously thought to originate from tectonic sources, could actually be caused by meteor strikes," the European Space Agency said in a statement. SEE ALSO: NASA spotted a big asteroid that may hit Earth — what you should know The researchers used machine-learning technology to sleuth through a daunting load of imagery from three different spacecraft to find 49 quakes that match with impacts recorded by the InSight lander (which deployed a dome-shaped seismometer on the Martian ground). Ultimately, the researchers concluded that such meteor strikes happen on Mars some 1.5 to 2.5 times more than previous observations suggested. The image below, taken by the European Space Agency's Trace Gas Orbiter (which arrived at Mars in 2016), shows one of the fresh impacts that researchers say stoked a marsquake. The space rock struck some 1,640 kilometers, or 1,020 miles away, but produced a sizable 21-meter (69-foot) wide crater and blasted impact eject around the area. A relatively recent impact site in the Cerberus Fossae region of Mars. Credit: ESA On top: Two large impact sites spotted by Mars-orbiting spacecraft (including the 21-meter impact shown above). On bottom: 10 recently created impact sites larger than 10 meters across. Credit: ESA / TGO / CaSSIS CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO / NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / MSSS Mars is far more susceptible to meteorite impacts than Earth. When objects do collide with Mars, the Ma
An object left a big gash on Mars. It also spawned a quake.