Meteor airburst above Mars, A Mars Odyssey THEMIS release Options

[ugordan]

This has got to be one of the coolest Mars images yet: http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080813a

A meteor burning up above the ground leaving no crater, only a record of a powerful shockwave hitting the ground!

You can see how the ground zero area god disturbed very little as the shock was coming almost straight down and the darkened outer portion is where dust was blown away as the radial portion of the shock picked up in strength. It's where trees would have been leveled if this were Earth

One can infer the direction it came from, from below in the image moving in a 11 o’clock direction judging by lack of dust there (the shock would also principally be moving downward along the flight path). The strongest disturbance is further along the flight path from ground zero where the shock would be reinforced by the kinetic energy of the body (see recent Tunguska simulations on this effect).

Awesome stuff, even if coming from someone who likes big things going BOOM.

[J.J.]

The longer this discussion goes on, the more desperately I desire a seismic network on Mars. That would answer the question once and for all.

-the other Doug

No kidding--to say nothing of what it could teach us about the Martian interior.