The mystery of the 5 "guns" on Mars that shoot rocks at Earth

(NLĐO) - Analysis of 200 Martian meteorites that have fallen to Earth shows that they originated from only 5 locations, which are "scars" in Tharsis and Elysium.

A team of scientists from the University of Alberta (Canada) has traced the tracks of 200 Martian meteorites that have been collected all over Earth to understand why our neighboring planet is ejecting these rocks toward us.

The research led to the discovery of five large impact craters in two volcanic regions on the red planet, named Tharsis and Elysium.

And associated with these five "guns" are five ancient events filled with violence.

Five impact craters on Mars are the "homes" of hundreds of meteorites that were ejected all the way to Earth - AI illustration: Anh Thu

NASA estimates that about 44 tons of meteorite material fall to Earth every day, although most land on the surface as tiny, inconspicuous dust particles. However, sometimes there are rocks large enough for us to pick up.

According to Space.com, in the 1980s, a group of meteorites, 1.3 billion years old and seemingly of volcanic origin, attracted attention.

This means these rocks must have come from a celestial body with recent volcanic activity—"near" in the geological sense—making Mars a potential candidate.

A Martian meteorite fell into the Sahara Desert in 2022 - Photo: Steve Jurvetson

Conclusive evidence emerged when NASA's Viking spacecraft was able to compare the atmospheric composition of Mars with the gases trapped in these rocks, confirming they were indeed meteorites from the neighboring planet.

However, Mars doesn't naturally shoot rocks toward Earth. These shots require a major impact—that is, other powerful meteorite collisions striking Mars, causing surface material to break apart and be flung upwards with such force that it escapes the planet's gravity.

These fragments become meteorites wandering through the solar system. Some have landed on Earth—perhaps after thousands, hundreds of thousands, or billions of years—giving scientists a golden opportunity to study the red planet's geology.

Knowing precisely where these meteorites originated on Mars would allow them to better piece together the planet's geological past.

Now, the research team has combined the commonly used spectroscopic fitting technique, used when comparing the composition of materials, with high-resolution simulations of collisions with a Mars-like planet.

This modeling helps determine the size of the impact crater, or the range of sizes of the final impact crater that may have launched the asteroid, along with many other specific details related to the event.

Finally, the steps of sifting and comparing Martian surface data led them to five impact craters located in the volcanic regions of Tharsis and Elysium.

The results also helped them better understand when volcanic events occurred on Mars, the different magma sources on the planet, and the rate at which impact craters formed during Mars' Amazonian period, which took place about 3 billion years ago and may have been the time when the planet was habitable.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/bi-an-5-hong-sung-sao-hoa-chuyen-ban-da-vao-trai-dat-196240829094543951.htm