3 ms·
Hm. Interesting to observe, but will this throw a lot more crap into space that we then have to worry about in a few decades? I assume it'll knacker any lander
by meaty 14y ago
Hm. Interesting to observe, but will this throw a lot more crap into space that we then have to worry about in a few decades?
I assume it'll knacker any landers we have there as well through either seismic activity or dust penetration.
- jerf 14y agoNot much, if any. Even what we'd consider a very large impact still almost instantaneously accelerates the target matter, so it has a velocity that is radial away from the impact point. That's not an orbit velocity. Mass will either fall back to Mars or escape entirely, but little to none of it will enter any sort of permanent orbit. Same reason why you can't just shoot something into orbit from Earth's surface with one instantaneous acceleration, and that getting into orbit is not merely a matter of standing on a very tall tower. Truly enormous impacts can change the rules if thing hitting Mars is large enough to shift the center of mass of the whole system. The Moon is thought to have been formed from something the size of Mars or so hitting Earth a very long time ago. But even in our rather violent universe, that's the exception, not the rule, obviously.
- meaty 14y agoThanks for the detailed response :)