Being larger than only Mercury, Mars is the second-smallest planet in the Solar System and is located four planets from the Sun.
The Roman god of battle is the inspiration for the name Mars in English. The solar eclipse on Mars was captured by the mast camera of NASA’s Perseverance rover.
Mars’ ‘Dinosaur Killer’
Scientists believe that Mars may have experienced its own “dinosaur killer” asteroid impact that resulted in a mega-tsunami. Similar to the Chicxulub impact that killed most of the dinosaurs on Earth 66 million years ago, an asteroid strike struck the globe in a shallow ocean location, causing a global asteroid storm.
Research from the past suggested a mega-tsunami may have occurred around 3.4 billion years ago as a result of an asteroid or comet impacting an ocean in the northern plains of Mars.
The site of the impact crater, however, was uncertain prior to the latest study. Maps of the surface of the red planet that was constructed by integrating photos from earlier trips to the planet were analyzed by Alexis Rodriguez and colleagues at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, America.
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Scientists Found Impact Crater on Mars
They located an impact crater that may have generated the mega-tsunami, or extremely large wave. The 110-kilometer-diameter crater, which they have called Pohl, is located there.
It is situated in a location of the northern lowlands that is around 120 meters below what earlier research has shown may have been the sea level. The position of Pohl in relation to previously dated rocks suggests that it may have originated around 3.4 billion years ago, according to the researchers.
To determine what kind of impact may have caused Pohl and whether this could have resulted in a mega-tsunami, the author simulated asteroid and comet crash with this region.
A nine-kilometer asteroid encountering strong ground resistance would release 13 million megatons of TNT energy, and a three-kilometer asteroid encountering weak ground resistance would release 0.5 million megatons of TNT energy, according to simulations that produced craters with dimensions similar to Pohl’s.
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