Mars Crater Mystery: Mysterious Dark Material Is Perplexing Scientists

NASA recently released a photo of a fresh crater that was supposedly formed after an asteroid hit Planet Mars sometime within 2016 to 2019.

The photo shows a beautiful black and blue crater that blended well against Mars’ red surface. The image was captured via the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and taken on April 17, 2019. The photo is an interesting material for the scientists as it pretty much offers a number of data and insight regarding the Red Planet’s atmosphere.

First, the impact of the asteroid looks amazing because it just shows how weak the atmosphere is on the Red Planet. A similar asteroid would have been disintegrated and burned once it starts crashing on the Earth’s atmosphere. But because of Mars’ thin atmosphere, most of the asteroid’s mass passed through, hit the surface and created the crater.

Another interesting detail about the crater is the supposed black material that seems to be oozing from it, something that is currently perplexing scientists. According to a report from Fox News, the crater has apparently exposed “dark material” from underneath the Red Planet and it would take time to identify what it is.

Based on the photo, the blue tinge looks like ice, something that Planet Mars is known to have a lot of. The black area of the new crater, however, is baffling scientists.

According to scientists from the University of Arizona, the new crater is larger compared to others they have seen in the past and is considered a rare sight from a planet that they have been observing for more than a decade.

"It is a reminder of what's out there. It's a gorgeous [crater]. I'm glad I got it in the color strip," Veronica Bray, University of Arizona scientist, said.

Scientists still can’t determine when the impact happened but pegged it sometime between September 2016 and February 2019. The asteroid is believed to be 5 meters wide.

Planet Mars is one of the main missions of NASA, apart from the Moon. The space agency plans for the major Mars mission by 2020 and expects humans to reach the planet sometime in 2030.