Scientists have calculated the rate of meteoroid impacts on Mars using seismic measurements NASA’s retired InSight lander took during its mission. Two companion studies published on June 28, independently estimate substantially higher rates than were previously derived from images taken by spacecraft orbiting the red planet. The studies show that seismic measures promise to be more effective for studying meteoroid impacts than other methods.
One team, led by Ingrid Daubar of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, extrapolated the impact rate from meteoroid impacts detected by InSight’s Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS). Using this method, the scientists found an impact rate of two to 10 times higher than previously determined using other methods.
The other study, led by Géraldine Zenhäusern of ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and Natalia Wójcicka of Imperial College London, United Kingdom, considered the possibility that an entire category of similar seismic events observed by InSight could be attributed to meteoroid impacts. The team found between 280 and 360 meteorites strike Mars yearly, resulting in impact craters greater than 8 m in diameter.