Comments on: Triple and Double Craters on Mars

By: alphonso richardson

alphonso richardson — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:05:18 +0000

Had to checkc the date to see if not an April Fool. I'm more than a bit ignorant about these things.
Cool photo

By: marcellus

marcellus — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:03:57 +0000

Not all Shoemaker-Levy 9 could have hit Mars, since Mars is a much smaller target. However fragment G of SL-9 was about 2 miles across. If that sucker would've hit Mars, I bet it would have created another hole, maybe not the size of Hellas Basin, but big enough to see in a medium sized telescope.

Cool article. It beats the hell out of Dark Matter, Global Warming and "What If" stories.

By: Ignoramus

Ignoramus — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:17:59 +0000

I have indeed problems "seeing" the mechanism that builds the "crisp" walls.

By: Gudenboink

Gudenboink — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:35:08 +0000

The triple craters depth seems to be equal in all three dents, where the large part of the double crater is a deeper level, so they were separate impacts right? If so, how would the wall between the two remain so "Crisp" in appearance?

To LLDiaz' question:
Shoemaker Levy-9 comet fragments were all of very different masses and diameters, so it would have produced many separate and different sizes and shapes of craters. I remember something around 22 different impacts on Jupiter over an extended period of time, which would probably produce a much different pattern / event.

The triple crater above looks like all three pieces hit at the same time and speed, which would have to be VERY rare.

By: LLDIAZ

LLDIAZ — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:28:43 +0000

would shoemaker levy 9 have created such an impact if it hit mars