A meteoroid impact on Mars triggers a dusty avalanche

12 June 2018 Astronomy Now

A meteoroid recently slammed into the side of a hillside on Mars, exploding on impact, destabilising the slope and triggering a long avalanche. The crater only measures about five meters (16 feet) across, but the avalanche left a dark trail of dry dust stretching a full kilometre (0.62 miles) down the side of a slope in a hilly region of the red planet. The image was captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment – HiRISE – aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

A dark, dusty avalanche stretches away from a small impact crater on the side of a martian hill, running away toward the top of this picture from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

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See the Moon get close to Mars on 18 October

17 October 2018 Ade Ashford

Skywatchers in Western Europe looking in the southern sky at dusk on Thursday, 18 October can see the 9-day-old waxing gibbous Moon close to the upper left of Mars, the pair fitting comfortably in the same field of view of typical binoculars. This is also a good night for spotting some prominent martian features telescopically – seeing permitting!