TAG | Solar system's largest crater discovered by NASA |
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| by Stephen Withers | |
| Thursday, 26 June 2008 | |
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But Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna and Maria Zuber of MIT and Bruce Banerdt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have analysed data collected by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, and found that it supports the impact crater hypothesis. "We haven't proved the giant-impact hypothesis, but I think we've shifted the tide," said Andrews-Hanna. It is estimated that the colliding object was around 1200 miles (1900 km) across. For comparison, the Pluto is approximately 1400 miles (2800 km) across. The 5300 mile (8500 km) northern basin covers some 40 percent of Mars' surface. It is four times wider than the next largest known impact crater, which is also on Mars. A combination of gravity and surface elevation data was used to reconstruct the shape of the crater before more recent volcanoes formed to confuse the picture. "This is an impressive result that has implications not only for the evolution of early Mars, but also for early Earth's formation," said Michael Meyer, the Mars chief scientist at NASA Headquarters.
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