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.
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.
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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 Martian atmosphere is just 1 percent the volume of Earth’s, meaning these space rocks are less likely to heat up and disintegrate. What’s more, the Red Planet is much closer to our solar system’s asteroid belt, a region teeming with millions of asteroids.
Understanding how meteors impact Mars is important to the space agencies, like NASA, planning to visit, and one day potentially colonize, the Red Planet. “Additional data on impact rates and crater sizes will help evaluate potential risks to robots, humans, and habitats during future Mars missions,” the European Space Agency said.
Robotic missions continue to reveal lots about this frigid desert world, located an average of 140 million miles from Earth. NASA’s Perseverance rover spotted potential — but still far from conclusive — past evidence of ancient microbial Martian life. Perseverance’s sibling, the Curiosity rover, has found compelling evidence that Mars once hosted warm, hospitable, watery environs. And the InSight lander revealed that water may exist today many miles down, deeply hidden in the Martian crust.
