A new crater has been discovered on Mars, adding new data about the dynamics of the solar system. NASA’s spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mars since 2006, captured a detailed image of this impact crater with the HIRISE camera designed to examine the Martian surface. Observations showed that the diameter of the crater was 1 km and its width was 5 km.

Working with HIRISE data, the team published the photo with a succinct caption: “Small, very fresh impact crater.” Although this crater is small compared to the Martian giants, more than a quarter of a million impact craters have been found on Mars, about the size of the famous Berringer Crater in Arizona, about 1.22 kilometers in diameter, and more than 43,000. Its width is more than 4.8 kilometers.

Mars is located closer to the asteroid belt of the solar system, which is filled with millions of cosmic objects. Asteroid collisions with Mars are therefore more frequent, and the Martian atmosphere, which is only 1% the size of Earth’s, means asteroids are less likely to heat up and break apart. In addition, there is currently no geological activity or volcanism on Mars that could flatten or cover new craters on Mars, although there is no phenomenon of Marsquakes. In this regard, there are more craters on the surface of Mars.

By comparison, there are only about 120 known impact craters on Earth, as geological activity, lava, and tectonic movements affect the smoothing of impact scars. Tectonic plates on the Earth’s surface continually move rocks, causing the earth’s layers to rework and volcanoes to eject significant amounts of rock. Unlike Earth, there is no active geological activity on Mars, so new craters are much better preserved.