Mystery over 500ft Mars crater that ‘suddenly appeared’ finally solved

EXPERTS have figured out what caused a mystery hole on Mars to appear last Christmas.

The massive crater is one and a half times the size of London’s Trafalgar Square.

2

Nasa’s InSight Lander felt the ground shake on Christmas Eve 2021 and spotted the previously unseen crater after.

It left scientists scratching their heads as to what caused the huge rumble.

But special kit seems to have unlocked the answer at last.

And it all points towards a meteoroid.

According to Imperial College London-made quake detectors, a van-sized space rock weighing 200 tonnes was responsible.

It produced a blast zone around the crater equivalent in size to the area inside London’s M25 motorway.

Nasa believes it’s one of the biggest seen on Mars since it began exploring the cosmos.

“The image of the impact was unlike any I had seen before, with the massive crater, the exposed ice, and the dramatic blast zone preserved in the Martian dust,” said Liliya Posiolova, from the Malin Space Science Systems.

“I couldn’t help but imagine what it must have been like to witness the impact, the atmospheric blast, and debris ejected miles downrange.”

End of InSight

But sadly it looks like the end for InSight.

The robot has been hit by some nasty storms leaving dust on its solar panels.

This means it’s not been able to charge properly and only has enough power to carry on for about six more weeks.

InSight successfully landed on Mars in November 2018.

2

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]