Origins of mysterious marsquake settled: it was a meteoroid what done it
Boffins have already determined the impact resulted in the excavation of"boulder-sized" chunks of ice that were buried near the Martian equator. Chunks of Mars became projectiles and ended up 23 miles from the impact site. It's a situation that not only reveals a lot about the planet's geology, but informs scientists on how to get the most out of future Mars expeditions.
Seeing a fresh hole blasted into the Martian crust also offers useful insight into what lies below the planet's surface. NASA reckons the meteoroid that did the job was between 16 and 39 feet in diameter – a size that would've burned up in the atmosphere had its target been Earth. Thanks to Mars's thin atmosphere, the space rock made it through to a region called Amazonis Planitia.