The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express probe has just conducted a survey flight of the more than 100 km wide Neukum Crater crater on Mars.
The large crater Neukum Crater was previously known through preliminary surveys by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). While NASA focused on surveying the geology and surrounding areas, ESA released close-up images of the legendary crater.
The crater, named after German physicist and planetary scientist Gerhard Neukum, is located in an area called Noachis Terra – one of the oldest geological remains of Mars. The materials here are about 3.9 billion years old. Noachis Terra is also the operating area of the Mars Curiosity rover – NASA’s robot that was once the lone citizen on the red planet.
According to exploration results, the crater has many geological signs showing that depressions and earthquakes have occurred, plus dark sand dunes that may be materials from volcanic eruptions.
The super volcano with a mouth up to 100 km wide is said to be one of the “villains” that created the arid Mars it is today.
Previous studies showed that Mars was once a “blue planet” like Earth with most of its area covered by oceans. It is very possible that life existed at that time.
However, a disaster estimated to have occurred more than 3 billion years ago severely changed the planet’s climate. Scientists believe it was caused by giant volcanic eruptions, releasing large amounts of ash and lava.
The consequences are extremely terrible because people found on Mars countless “super volcanoes” that can be thousands of times more powerful than normal volcanoes on Earth. Luckily they are in a dormant state.
