context camera – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

UA Mars Camera Reveals Hundreds of Impacts Each Year

By Guest PostMay 21, 2013Sciencealfred mcewen, chelyabinsk, context camera, ctx, hirise imaging experiment, ingrid daubar, leslie tamppari, mars, martian craters, martian surface, martian terrain, mro, NASA, picture, planet, red planet, russia, space rocks, texas, thinner atmosphere, two week cycle, ua mars camera, university of arizona

Taking before and after pictures of Martian terrain, researchers of the UA-led HiRISE imaging experiment have identified almost 250 fresh impact craters on the Red Planet. The results suggest Mars gets pummeled by space rocks less frequently than previously thought, as scientists relied on cratering rates of the moon for their estimates.

Scientists using images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, have estimated that the planet is bombarded by more than 200 small asteroids or bits of comets per year forming craters at least 12.8 feet (3.9 meters) across.

Researchers have identified 248 new impact sites on parts of the Martian surface in the past decade, using images from the spacecraft to determine when the craters appeared. The 200-per-year planetwide estimate is a calculation based on the number found in a systematic survey of a portion of the planet. (more…)

UCLA Scientist Discovers Plate Tectonics on Mars

For years, many scientists had thought that plate tectonics existed nowhere in our solar system but on Earth. Now, a UCLA scientist has discovered that the geological phenomenon, which involves the movement of huge crustal plates beneath a planet’s surface, also exists on Mars.

“Mars is at a primitive stage of plate tectonics. It gives us a glimpse of how the early Earth may have looked and may help us understand how plate tectonics began on Earth,” said An Yin, a UCLA professor of Earth and space sciences and the sole author of the new research. (more…)

Tag Archives: context camera

UA Mars Camera Reveals Hundreds of Impacts Each Year

UCLA Scientist Discovers Plate Tectonics on Mars