A spray of small impacts melting Martian ice?
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on March 2, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and was taken not as part of any specific research request but by the MRO science team to fill a gap in its schedule while also maintaining the camera’s temperature. Sometimes these somewhat random times show nothing of interest. Sometimes they are fascinating, as in this case.
The photo shows what appear to be a spray of small impacts on an easily melted surface. Imagine spraying hot molten lava on a sheet of ice. Instead of creating a crater with an upraised rim, on impact each droplet would quickly melt a hole.
Did these small impacts all occur at the same time? My guess is yes, based on the overview map below.
The white dot southeast of Milankovic Crater marks this location, which is also at 52 degrees north latitude. The ground here is very likely impregnated with near-surface ice, which would easily melt if hit with a spray of falling hot objects. Moreover, Milankovic Crater is already known to have visible underground layers of ice, revealed on many exposed scarps on the crater floor.
This spray could have come from a rubble-pile asteroid breaking up as its entered Mars thin atmosphere, but then the objects would have probably been relatively cool on hitting the ground. (I have been told by meteorite hunters that this is the case with meteorites on Earth. Any pieces that reach the ground tend to fall that last several hundred feet relatively slowly, and are thus relatively cool. On Mars they would be cooler, considering the thinness of the atmosphere.)
My guess is that we are seeing a spray of secondary impacts produced by ejecta thrown out by the impact that created Milankovic Crater. That ejecta would have been very hot, possibly molten. It could easily have sprayed across this icy ground, leaving this scattering of holes.
My guess could also be very easily wrong. These holes might not be secondary impacts from Milankovic, but at least one other cool image suggests that such secondaries in this region of Mars will produce these type holes.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on March 2, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and was taken not as part of any specific research request but by the MRO science team to fill a gap in its schedule while also maintaining the camera’s temperature. Sometimes these somewhat random times show nothing of interest. Sometimes they are fascinating, as in this case.
The photo shows what appear to be a spray of small impacts on an easily melted surface. Imagine spraying hot molten lava on a sheet of ice. Instead of creating a crater with an upraised rim, on impact each droplet would quickly melt a hole.
Did these small impacts all occur at the same time? My guess is yes, based on the overview map below.
The white dot southeast of Milankovic Crater marks this location, which is also at 52 degrees north latitude. The ground here is very likely impregnated with near-surface ice, which would easily melt if hit with a spray of falling hot objects. Moreover, Milankovic Crater is already known to have visible underground layers of ice, revealed on many exposed scarps on the crater floor.
This spray could have come from a rubble-pile asteroid breaking up as its entered Mars thin atmosphere, but then the objects would have probably been relatively cool on hitting the ground. (I have been told by meteorite hunters that this is the case with meteorites on Earth. Any pieces that reach the ground tend to fall that last several hundred feet relatively slowly, and are thus relatively cool. On Mars they would be cooler, considering the thinness of the atmosphere.)
My guess is that we are seeing a spray of secondary impacts produced by ejecta thrown out by the impact that created Milankovic Crater. That ejecta would have been very hot, possibly molten. It could easily have sprayed across this icy ground, leaving this scattering of holes.
My guess could also be very easily wrong. These holes might not be secondary impacts from Milankovic, but at least one other cool image suggests that such secondaries in this region of Mars will produce these type holes.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Isn‘t there a recent video of skydivers encountering a falling stone during a dive?
David M. Cook,
Is this the one you mean?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp0VCG-lbQ4 (1 minute)
David/Edward-
thanks for that clip.
{I upscaled it to 720p at 256fps; the Object is clearly a UFO.[sarcasm alert]}
On a more serious note- what kind of energy are we talking about, to get a small rock into the air, on Earth?
(if bolders can skate around Death Valley, I see no reason why small rocks don’t occasionally become airborne)
excuse me, “boulders.”