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Published online 25 June 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.916
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Asteroid smash turned Mars into 'takeaway pizza' planet
Legacy of ancient impact means Mars now comes with either thick or thin crust.
Kaboom! When a giant impact whacked into a young Mars around 4 billion years ago, the impact made such a huge dent in the northern hemisphere that it left the entire planet lop-sided.
This dent has been partly hidden from the view of scientists because of the large Tharsis volcanic range that now spans the area.
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The Neptune Effect came at this same period. With the four largest planets switching orbits, is it possible that a rogue body like a Kuiper Belt Object caused this?
I wrote about The Mars Water Theory at my www.dimithri.blogspot.com that I would appreciate if you can read it and send me your opinion.
I was amaze when theres new things posted or publshed about our the outer space, natural habitat, discoveries and lot of more things.. i hope that this may continue giving information anout the sorrounding.. please published more information that may educate people like me.
As much as I respect MIT researchers, I have to agree with Dimitri - whatever happened to the theory of a vast northern sea on Mars? Hasn't there been evidence of beach-like conditions on the boundary between the north and south regions?
It was June 2, 1995 when Dr. John Brandenburg and I (Vincent DiPietro) submitted our paper - Did the Lyot Impact end the Liquid Water Era on Mars? Our paper was presented at the American Geophysical Union in Baltimore on that date. (ref. 1330h, P52A-03 & P52A-04) Our papers suggest that meteorites examined by Dr. Nagy with fossils have come from Mars. Crater Lyot dates at 300 million to 900 million years ago, long after the impact of 4 billion years ago described in your recent article. Dr. Nagy published "Carbonaceous Meteorites" in Netherlands in 1975 - ISBN 0-444-41189-5.
Vincent, I agree. As an evolutionary scientist, it rather strikes me that such an impact would result in the loss of both water and life on Mars (assuming life did exist there). If we take into account the effect of meteorite impact on Earth extinctions, the pattern is clear - big meteorite hit, big extinction event. Not to mention the colossal geological disruption that would follow.