Images Reveal How Mars Got Its Elongated Scar.., page
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Topic started on 9-3-2011 @ 02:17 AM by BlackPoison94
An interesting article to read:
Images reveal how Mars got its elongated scar


The crater is around 78km long, and ranges from 10km to 25km wide and with a depth of 2km. Pretty large, huh? Impact craters are generally round because the projectiles that create them push into the ground before the shockwave of the impact can explode outwards. So the mystery comes to why it's elongated?


The clue comes from the surrounding blanket of material, thrown out in the initial impact. This ‘ejecta blanket’ is shaped like a butterfly’s wings, with two distinct lobes. This hints that two projectiles, possibly halves of a once-intact body, slammed into the surface here.

In the crater itself, there are three deeper areas that could be evidence for more than two projectiles. In addition, a second elongated crater lies to the north-northwest. It can be seen in the wider contextual image and is in line with the one seen here, reinforcing the notion that these structures were the result of a train of projectiles.


Clues about Martian Life..
In the early 1980s, scientists proposed that elongated impact craters were formed by incoming chains of orbital debris following trajectories that decayed with time. As the debris spiraled downwards, it eventually struck the planet at shallow angles, gouging out the elongated craters.This particular ejecta blanket contains many smaller craters, indicating that the original formed a relatively long time ago and then itself become a target.

In addition, there are several small channels on the blanket, suggesting that the strike took place into a surface rich in volatiles, perhaps even water, that were melted by the heat of impact and flowed away. Water is essential for life as we know it, and evidence of water on Mars could help astrobiologists understand if the planet was once habitable for living organisms.


And that's not it...Phobos will be slamming into Mars after a few billion of years, causing it to break up and therefore cause new chains across the surface.

So that's one mystery of Mars cleared up...now to the many more..


reply posted on 9-3-2011 @ 03:07 AM by SunTzu22
reply to post by BlackPoison94


Hey thanx for the post and pic!! I am alway to lazy to look at all the Mars pics, there are so many cool ones. B itchin dude, keep em coming


reply posted on 9-3-2011 @ 03:19 AM by heineken
reply to post by Arbitrageur


i completely agree with you..the of the crater is flat..to me its still 1 object was involved in the damage..not a direct impact though...very very strange scar


reply posted on 9-3-2011 @ 08:04 AM by Aliensun
reply to post by BlackPoison94


While that impact may have kicked up some dust, the late astronomer Tom Van Fandern ("Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets") wrote in 1993 that the equatorial scar of the Valles Marineris was caused by a body crashing into the surface at a shallow angle. He went on to suggest that would have been the end of Mars as a living planet. We can further that hypothesis and explain other scars that are located fairly well along that line of trajectory could be parts of that original body striking the surface again as they "bounce" around the planet.


reply posted on 9-3-2011 @ 01:27 PM by SLAYER69
reply to post by Aliensun


Yeah I always thought about an extreme angle or a glancing blow that came in @ 30% or less.
What do I know?
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