Tag Archive for 'Crater'

This painting depicts an asteroid slamming into tropical, shallow seas of the sulfur-rich Yucatan Peninsula in what is today southeast Mexico. The aftermath of this immense asteroid collision, which occurred approximately 65 million years ago, is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other species on Earth. Shown in this painting are pterodactyls, flying reptiles with wingspans of up to 50 feet, gliding above low tropical clouds. Image credit: Donald E. Davis / NASA.

Geologists Find Asteroid Dust inside Chicxulub Impact Crater

Feb 25, 2021 by News Staff

Geologists believe they have closed the case of what killed non-avian dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period. This painting depicts an asteroid...

This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Curiosity Finds Deposits from Megafloods in Martian Crater

Nov 23, 2020 by News Staff

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found a series of symmetrical, 10-m- (33-foot-) high gravel ridges — sedimentologic evidence of ancient giant floods...

This artist’s conception of Europa shows a hypothesized cryovolcanic eruption, in which briny water from within the icy shell blasts into space. Image credit: Justice Blaine Wainwright.

Europa’s Plumes May Originate from Near-Surface Brine Reservoirs, Not Global Ocean

Nov 11, 2020 by News Staff

Europa, the sixth of Jupiter’s moons and the fourth largest, has a subsurface ocean covered by an icy shell. Despite evidence for plumes on the icy moon,...

This colorized radar image, taken by NASA’s Cassini orbiter on February 15, 2005, shows a 60-km (37-mile) wide crater on Titan. The appearance of the crater and the extremely bright (hence rough) blanket of material surrounding it is indicative of an origin by impact, in which a hypervelocity comet or asteroid, in this case, roughly 5-10 km (3-6 miles) in size, slammed into the surface of the moon. The bright surrounding blanket is debris, or ejecta, thrown out of the crater. The asymmetric appearance of this ejecta blanket could be an effect of atmospheric winds associated with the impact itself. Although clearly formed by impact, the feature lacks a central peak, suggesting that it has been eroded or otherwise modified after formation. Rainfall, wind erosion, and softening of the solid material in which the crater formed are all possible processes that might have altered this impact feature. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASI.

Cassini Finds Organics and Water Ice in Titan’s Impact Craters

Nov 6, 2020 by News Staff

Using the spectral data collected by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, a team of researchers has...

This image shows a triple crater in Noachis Terra, Mars. The largest crater measures 45 km across, and the smallest 28 km. There are also signs of other sizeable craters, such as the round patches of sunken surface seen to the top right and bottom left. This image comprises data gathered by ESA’s Mars Express using its High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on August 6, 2020. This image was created using data from the nadir and color channels of the HRSC. The nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface. North is to the right. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Mars Express Spots Triple Crater on Red Planet

Nov 3, 2020 by News Staff

ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has spotted three overlapping craters in Noachis Terra, an extensive landmass in the southern hemisphere of Mars. This image...

This illustration highlights Clavius Crater on the Moon with an illustration depicting water trapped in the lunar soil there, along with an image of SOFIA. Image credit: NASA.

SOFIA Detects Molecular Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon

Oct 26, 2020 by News Staff

Using data gathered by the Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) onboard the NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy...

Meteoroids bombarded the Earth-Moon system 800 million years ago. Image credit: Murayama, Osaka University.

Asteroid Shower Bombarded Earth-Moon System 800 Million Years Ago

Jul 22, 2020 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers from Japan has demonstrated that a 100-km asteroid was disrupted 800 million years ago (Tonian period of the Neoproterozoic...

This photograph was taken looking south across Mare Imbrium. The crater Copernicus, 93 km (58 miles) in diameter, is seen in the distance. Several chains of small craters are visible. These are oriented toward Copernicus and are secondary craters produced by material ejected when Copernicus formed. In the foreground, the crater Pytheas is 20 km (12.4 miles) in diameter. This photo was taken by the Apollo 17 crew in 1972. Image credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Lunar Subsurface May Be Richer in Metals than Previously Thought

Jul 2, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a team of U.S. researchers has...

The Chicxulub asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, which is among the worst-case scenarios for the lethality of the impact by the production of climate-changing gases. Image credit: Chase Stone.

Dinosaur-Killing Chicxulub Asteroid Hit Earth at Angle of 60 Degrees

May 27, 2020 by News Staff

A 10-km asteroid crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years...

This colorful view of Mercury was produced by using images from the color base map imaging campaign during MESSENGER’s primary mission. These colors are not what Mercury would look like to the human eye, but rather the colors enhance the chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences between the rocks that make up the planet’s surface. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Mercury’s Extreme Daytime Heat May Help It Make Its Polar Ice

Mar 16, 2020 by News Staff

In 2011, NASA’s MESSENGER orbiter detected signals typical of glacial ice near the poles on Mercury. The ice was dingy and lurked in permanent shadows...

Perspective view of the Moreux crater. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Mars Express Sees Intriguing Geological Features in Moreux Crater

Mar 10, 2020 by News Staff

The High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has captured stunning images of Moreux crater, a huge impact crater in the Terra Sabaea...

The Yutu-2 rover moves across the far side of the Moon. Image credit: CNSA.

China’s Yutu-2 Rover Reveals What Lies Beneath Moon’s Farside Surface

Feb 28, 2020 by News Staff

On January 3, 2019, China National Space Administration’s Chang’e-4 probe successfully landed on the eastern floor of Von Karman, a 180-km- (112 mile)...

Composite aeromagnetic anomaly map of the Yarrabubba impact structure within the Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, showing the locations of key outcrops and samples used in this study. The image combines the total magnetic intensity (TMI, cool to warm colors) with the second vertical derivative of the total magnetic intensity (2VD, grayscale) data. The demagnetized anomaly centered on the outcrops of the Barlangi granophyre is considered to be the eroded remnant of the central uplift domain, which forms the basis of the crater diameter of 70 km. Prominent, narrow linear anomalies that cross-cut the demagnetized zone with broadly east-west orientations are mafic dykes that post-date the impact structure. Image credit: Erickson et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13985-7.

Earth’s Oldest Known Meteorite Impact Structure Identified

Jan 22, 2020 by News Staff

The 70 km- (43.5-mile) diameter Yarrabubba impact structure in Western Australia is approximately 2.23 billion years old, according to new research led...

This image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Jezero Crater on Mars, the landing site for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. On ancient Mars, water carved channels and transported sediments to form fans and deltas within lake basins. Examination of spectral data acquired from orbit show that some of these sediments have minerals that indicate chemical alteration by water. Here in Jezero Crater delta, sediments contain clays and carbonates. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / JHU-APL.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Finds Hydrated Silica in Jezero Crater

Nov 14, 2019 by News Staff

Using data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers have...

An illustrated meteorite impact scenario to exemplify the Siljan impact event. Image credit: Henrik Drake.

Signs of Ancient Microbes Found within 381-Million-Year-Old Crater

Nov 6, 2019 by News Staff

Fractured rocks of impact craters may be suitable hosts for deep microbial communities on Earth and potentially other terrestrial planets, yet direct evidence...

Lunar Water Ice May Have Multiple Sources, Researchers Say

Oct 11, 2019 by News Staff

Lunar orbiters such as India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently detected water icy on the floor of some...

This artist’s concept of a lake at the north pole of Titan illustrates raised rims and rampartlike features such as those seen by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft around the moon’s Winnipeg Lacus. New research using Cassini radar data and modeling proposes that lake basins like these are likely explosion craters, which could have formed when liquid molecular nitrogen deposits within the crust warmed and quickly turned to vapor, blowing holes in the moon’s crust. This would have happened during a warming event (or events) that occurred in a colder, nitrogen-dominated period in Titan’s past. The study may provide evidence of these cold periods in Titan’s past, followed by a relative warming to conditions like those of today. Although Titan is frigid compared to Earth, methane in the atmosphere provides a greenhouse effect that warms the moon’s surface. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Titan’s Small Methane-Filled Lakes are Explosion Craters: Study

Sep 11, 2019 by News Staff

Small methane-filled lakes on the surface of Titan were likely formed by explosive, pressurized nitrogen just under the hazy moon’s surface, according...

A high-resolution free-air gravity map based on data returned from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, overlaid on terrain based on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) altimeter and camera data. The view is south-up, with the south pole near the horizon in the upper left. The terminator crosses the eastern rim of the Schrödinger basin. Gravity is painted onto the areas that are in or near the night side. Red corresponds to mass excesses and blue to mass deficits. Image credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

Solar Wind and Meteoroids Erode Water Frost in Lunar Polar Craters, Planetary Researchers Say

Jul 24, 2019 by News Staff

Lunar orbiters recently detected water frost on the floor of some of the south polar craters, regions that are known to be very cold and can trap water....

The South Pole-Aitken Basin on the lunar far side is one of the largest and oldest impact features in the Solar System. It’s easily seen in the elevation data. The low center is dark blue and purple. Mountains on its edge, remnants of outer rings, are red and yellow. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / University of Arizona.

Mysterious Mass of Material Discovered Beneath Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin

Jun 11, 2019 by News Staff

The South Pole-Aitken basin — the largest crater in the Solar System — is a gigantic impact structure on the far side of the Moon. Data from...

Scientists Find 1.2-Billion-Year-Old Impact Crater Off Coast of Scotland

Jun 10, 2019 by News Staff

A 3,300-foot- (1 km) wide asteroid struck our planet 1.2 billion years ago, according to new research published in the Journal of the Geological Society. An...

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