Mars has 2 billion 'sink holes' because of a mysterious attacker

A new study of the surface of Mars has shown that an alien attacker could have a devastating impact .

According to Universe Today, the research team from John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU APL - USA) has studied in depth the impact crater named Corinto in the Elysium Planitia area located near the Martian equator.

Corinto impact crater on Mars - (Photo: NASA).

It's a relatively young crater - 2.34 million years old - by the standards of the red planet, a world full of impact craters large and small.

Its size is also relative: 14km in diameter and 1km deep.

The reason Corinto is so interesting is because sophisticated images from NASA spacecraft show it has a system of "rays" extending from the rim of the crater , suggesting that things have been ejected from the crater.

In addition, the inside of the crater is full of pockmarks. That's evidence it must have been filled with water ice before being hit by an attacker - possibly an asteroid.

Calculations show that the impact angle was about 30-45 degrees and was so powerful that it released countless pieces of debris.

More surprisingly, model analyzes as well as direct traces collected by spacecraft from the surface of Mars show that this very strong impact created up to 2 billion secondary impact craters.

Mars is continuously plowed by meteorite impact craters and secondary craters - (Graphic image).

Secondary impact craters are those formed when hot debris ejected from the initial impact falls onto nearby areas - also with great force - and creates smaller impact craters.

This huge number of secondary craters and including many large craters is due to the size of "fragments" fired from Corinto which can be up to 10m. Some secondary craters are located up to 1.8km from the original crater.

The surface of Mars is not affected by continuous, strong climatic phenomena or rich flora and fauna like Earth, so it can keep almost intact traces of collisions over millions of years. even billions of years.

It unintentionally shows us how powerful an impact an alien attacker can be. Earth may also have impact crater systems like that, hidden under sediment layers.

The research was just announced at the 55th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas - USA.