Scientists revealed Thursday that two of its Mars robots recorded a sizable quake, leaving a crater bigger than any ever recorded in the solar system.
The Mars Insight lander recorded a magnitude 4 marsquake on December 24, but scientists only recently learned the cause of that quake.
"The meteoroid excavated boulder-size chunks of ice buried closer to the Martian equator than ever found before – a discovery with implications for NASA’s future plans to send astronauts to the Red Planet," NASA said.This meteoroid impact crater on Mars was discovered using the black-and-white Context Camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
While the meteoroid was estimated to be upwards of 39 feet, the impact on Mars created a crater 492 feet across and 70 feet deep. The crash tossed pieces of Mars rock and dirt as far as 23 miles away.