Meteorite Crash Reveals Huge Chunks Of Ice On Mars
Language
Reading Level
Listen to Article
Alignment
On December 24, 2021, NASA's InSight lander recorded a magnitude four quake on Mars. At first, scientists had no idea what had caused the tremor. However, that changed in February 2022 when the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted a new crater on the Red Planet's surface. Researchers connected the dots from both missions and realized that a meteoroid had struck Mars.
The space rock is believed to be about 16 to 39 feet (5 to 12 meters) in diameter. The small rock would have burned up in Earth's atmosphere. However, the meteoroid easily pierced through the thin Martian atmosphere. The 492-foot (150 meters) wide and 70-foot (21 meters) deep crater it created is not the Red Planet's largest. But it is the biggest one formed since NASA scientists began observing Mars.
"It's unprecedented to find a fresh impact of this size," said Ingrid Daubar, who leads InSight's Impact Science Working Group. "It's an exciting moment in geologic history, and we got to witness it."
Even better, the space rock helped uncover huge chunks of ice buried near the Martian equator. Previous missions had found traces of ice at the planet's poles. But this is the first time ice has been found so close to the warm equator. The exciting findings were revealed in the journal Science on October 27, 2022.
"This is really an exciting result," said Lori Glaze, NASA's director of planetary science. "We know, of course, that there's water ice near the poles on Mars. But in planning for future human exploration of Mars, we'd want to land the astronauts as near to the equator as possible, and having access to ice at these lower latitudes, that ice can be converted into water, oxygen, or hydrogen. That could be really useful."
Resources: CNN.com, Science.org, NASA.gov
Get the Workbook for this article!
Workbook contains: Article, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking Questions, Vocabulary in Context (+ answers), Multiple Choice Quiz (+ answers), Parts of Speech Quiz (+ answers), Vocabulary Game (+ answers)Cite Article
Learn Keywords in this Article
125 Comments
megajuju5 monthsWow I never knew a meterorite could crash on mars!!!!
loaf5 monthsWow Ice, mars and I thought mars had no H2O in any form solid, liquid, or Gas!!!
summerblair6 monthsMars is the planet far away, mercury is the planet closest to the sun. Also, this is the next scientific discovery! Ending the argument if Mars ever had water, now we have proof!
jamesom6 monthsI thought mars was ♨🌶 hot
moviestarmax8 monthsI hope humans can live on Mars!! My uncle is NASA's Director of Space Exploration
bob_the_builder8 monthsCool. This means we might be able to live on Mars!
crowfl00fs9 monthsall tho, its ice bc its so cold there. but i hope we are able to find life on there.
iseforlife7 monthsSeriously I said that when watching the videos
blaisel3059 monthswhat if there are life forms frozen in ice- blaisel3059 monthsproof that there is water on mars
theartistloph9 monthsEarth's plan B.