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!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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:
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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!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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.”