Two NASA spacecraft detect biggest meteor strikes at Mars

Boulder-size blocks of ice are seen around the rim of an impact crater on Mars that was formed on Dec. 24, 2021, by a meteoroid strike in the Amazonis Planitia region. Two NASA spacecraft at Mars — one on the surface and the other in orbit — have recorded the biggest meteor strikes and impact craters yet observed on the red planet. The high-speed barrages last year sent seismic waves rippling thousands of miles across Mars and carved out craters nearly 500 feet across, scientists reported Thursday in the journal Science. Imaging the craters “would have been huge already,” but matching it to the seismic ripples was a bonus, said study co-author Liliya Posiolova of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. “It’s going to be heartbreaking when we finally lose communication with InSight,” said Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, the lander’s chief scientist and a study co-author.