Giant Impacts on Ancient Mars (Artist's Concept)

This artist's concept depicts a scene from 4.5 billion years ago, when scientists believe giant impacts occurred on Mars, injecting debris deep into the planet's mantle. NASA's InSight lander detected this debris before the mission's end in 2022, and these findings from the mission were published in the journal Science on Aug. 28, 2025. The early solar system had many space rocks bashing into the young planets, and smaller impactors can be seen surrounding this giant one in the image. The giant asteroids or comets that sent debris into the Martian mantle would have released enough energy to melt continent-size swaths of the early crust and mantle into vast magma oceans. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26635