NASA Spacecraft ‘Hears’ Massive Explosion On Mars, Finds Crater Bigger Than Football Field!

Since Mars Insight began monitoring seismic events on Mars it recorded many tectonic events, and many asteroid impacts. However a new study looks at two of the largest events, one on December 21st 2021 created a large 150meter crater and was likely caused by an asteroid weighing 500 tons travelling at 7-8 kilometers per second. Images of the crater appear to show bright spots in the ejecta, possibly ice from a sub surface permafrost layer.
The event also allowed the planetary scientists to observe the behaviour of Mars' interior and come up with new understanding of the geology.

Largest recent impact craters on Mars: Orbital imaging and surface seismic co-investigation
Surface waves and crustal structure on Mars

Also mentioned this previous paper which found new craters based on Insight data.

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[Weisior]

The sole fact that we are capable of monitoring the other freaking planet 24/7 with such detail is mindblowing in itself!

[seabeepirate]

That closing bit blew my mind. I knew things burned up in our atmosphere all the time but I didn’t realize we were collecting so much mass so regularly.

[ralphlorenz]

Great video, Scott, very accurate and engaging summary of our work (I'm in the 4th row in the author list.). Kudos for digging into the paper itself! We were tremendously lucky to observe such a large event with InSight - on Christmas Eve, no less.. As a Scot living in the US, I'm a big fan of your work, this might be one of your best!

[Forbes__]

‘’Courage taught me no matter how bad a crisis gets ... any sound investment will eventually pay off."

[patreekotime]

Glad that Insight got this observational opportunity before it dies. Considering that there were concerns early on that it wouldnt be able to properly deploy the probe, it really is amazing that they been able to make these observations!

[HZP]

I study the K-Pg extinction so this is quite useful. We can only speculate the effects of giant impacts unless we observe them. My concerns are the overpressure, earthquakes, and climate effects rather than fires somehow started by microtektites that already cooled while falling and other things that make little sense. This is useful!

[ThatPsdude]

That fact that ice came up was really interesting!

[philb]

Sad that InSight will soon reach end of mission, but it was a great scientific mission.

[wooddogg]

That's some impressive imagery. Nice video Scott!

[realzachfluke]

I love the Mars story, and I especially love the fact that Mars is FINALLY rejoining our night sky after a long period of not being visible. I've been waiting for it for such a long time, and I have absolutely NOT BEEN DISAPPOINTED so far. It's been so freaking bright, and even more freaking ORANGE lol 🧡

[chrisantoniou]

It's worth noting that this is bigger than any crater that has been observed during historical times here on Earth, even though we have been the target of larger meteors. It's also worth noting that the estimated speed of impact was particularly low compared with meteors on Earth due the lower gravity on Mars. Another well researched and presented article, thanks! 👍

[nancys]

Absolutely LOVED this video! I've ALWAYS had a love of outer space, the solar system, etc. And I wish I had become a geologist so I was fascinated by ALL the geology in this report. The pictures, the graphs, the descriptions explaining ALL of these and more helped in understanding the viedo. Very well done, accept my thanks.

[kevinschwabe]

I had a presentation on meteors planned for earlier this month that was postponed by Hurricane Ian. I think this needs to be added when we get the outing rescheduled.

[metachuko]

6:05 I like that there's something labelled "forbidden zone"

[Spicy]

I wonder if it's worth sending a lander in a newly formed crater of this size since now you don't need to dig all that land to get that data, although you might get a mix of mars geology and the Meteor

[JeremieBPCreation]

One foot is 30 cm, half a meter is 50 cm. Not important but still a fairly sizable difference proportionally speaking.

[RegularEarthlingEngineer]

I love that humans can exploit this to learn about the interior of Mars.

[darthgator]

1 ft = 0.5 meters, no no Scott, this will not stand!

[ardag]

This must be an asteroid force projection campaign after what we did to Dimorphos.

[conradmanley]

Just happened upon your channel. Nice to see that YouTube hasn't been completely saturated with mind marshmallowing fluff. Now I can continue with learning something new everyday. ❤👍✌. All the best vibes from Ottawa, Canada 🇨🇦