A meteor struck Mars in February 2021, generating seismic waves that traveled 1,640 km (1,019 miles) before reaching NASA’s InSight lander. The impact left a 21-meter (69-foot) wide crater and disrupted an area stretching 1,400 meters (4,593 feet). The event was captured by the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) using its Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS).
Marsquakes, the Martian equivalent of earthquakes, are a common occurrence on the Red Planet, as are meteor impacts. For years, scientists have manually identified hundreds of new craters, linking some to seismic activity.
But on February 3, 2025, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced a breakthrough—Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now helping researchers connect meteor impacts to Marsquakes more efficiently. By analyzing data from five different orbiting instruments, AI is taking over the tedious work, making it easier to track and understand seismic activity on Mars.
Scientists published two new studies in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters. Constantinos Charalambous of Imperial College London, lead author of one study, highlighted the significance of the findings, stating, “These freshly mined data are exciting because they reveal that meteoroid impacts on Mars occur about twice as often as previous orbital image surveys estimated.” ESA's Space Safety Program is actively working on developing planetary defense strategies to detect, mitigate, and prevent potential hazards from space.
Scientists used high-resolution images from multiple cameras orbiting Mars to aid their research. These included the Context Camera and HiRISE on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, CaSSIS on ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter, and the High-Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express. While many of these events were believed to be tectonic, new findings suggest they may actually be the result of meteor strikes. A false-color image of a fresh crater in Cerberus Fossae—one of Mars’ most seismically active areas—provided key evidence supporting this conclusion.
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