A recent paper released determines how often meteorites impact the surface of Mars from seismological data from Nasa’s InSight probe.

Meteorites strikes on Mars, About The Study

• Published in: The study is published in the journal Nature Astronomy 
• Source of data: The researchers used the data from NASA’s Mars probe InSight’s seismometer which could hear every single impact within the landers’ range.
• Process: 
• • The scientists tracked a particular acoustic signal which is produced when meteorites strike Mars to estimate the diameter of craters and their distance from InSight.
  • They then calculated the number of craters made in one year near the lander, before extrapolating that number across the entire planet.
• Approach: The study’s approach was to listen to the internal rumblings of the red planet when the meteorites striked rather than the previous approach of estimating the strike rate by images taken by orbiting spacecraft or models based on craters on the Moon.
  • Listening for impacts seems to be more effective than looking for them if we want to understand how often they occur.
• Finding: It is estimated that Mars is hit by 280 to 360 meteorites every year, all of which  blast craters bigger than eight metres (26 feet) wide.
  • This rate was about five times higher than the number estimated from orbital imagery alone.
  • Also it was estimated that a big meteorite strike makes a 30-metre crater on Mars about once a month.
• Significance: 
  • Future Missions: This data is definitely a valuable source for mapping mars which will be an invaluable source when it comes to plan for future missions to Mars.
  • Shortcoming of the imagery approach: Frequent, intense dust storms  on Mars makes it particularly difficult for spacecraft orbiting Mars to see small meteorite craters down below.

Enroll now for UPSC Online Course

Why is Mars a Prime Target?

• Closer to the asteroid Belt: Mars is roughly twice as big as the Moon and is much closer to our solar system’s main asteroid belt, thus being a prime target for large rocks hurtling through space.
• Thin Atmosphere: Martian atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth thus the Meteorites does not break apart in its atmosphere like it does on Earth giving it little protection.