Martian meteors go deeper than expected

AI leads astronomers to a fresh Mars impact that shook the planet’s deep mantle

Meteor strikes impacting the surface of Mars could shake the Red Planet far more deeply than previously thought. The revelation came after planetary geologists used a new AI algorithm to link the appearance of new impact craters in images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) with seismic information from the InSight lander. NASA’s InSight lander spent four years on Mars listening out for ‘marsquakes’. By the time it retired in 2022, it had discovered 1,300 such seismic events, many from meteor impacts. In some cases, astronomers were able to match these with recent impacts detected by the MRO. As MRO photographs the same areas over and over again, it’s possible to find new craters by comparing old images with new ones. However, it would take a human many years to…

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BBC Sky at Night United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025

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