Mars Is Scarred by Hundreds of Thousands of Craters

According to a new atlas of the Martian surface, it would appear that the neighboring world is scarred by more than 635,000 big impact craters, which are distributed across the planet.

The new study classified as a large impact crater any crater that is over 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) in diameter. This is the largest database of this type ever created, and will most likely become a point of reference for future studies of the Red Planet.

“This database is a giant tool that will be helpful in scores of future Mars studies ranging from age-dating and erosion to planetary habitability, and to other applications we have not even thought of yet,” explains Stuart Robbins.

The expert, who led the new investigation, holds an appointment as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado in Boulder (UCB), Space reports.