Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Thoughts on modeling Mars impacts

Hellas

Although the Hellas basin is about the size of Australia, the object that created it was only about 200 km in diameter (remember your scaling laws that the bolide is ~ 1/20 the size of the hole it makes)

Mars is 6600 km in diameter, which gives a mass ratio of 33^3, i.e. around 35,000.

Since both bodies were initially in solar orbits before their mutual gravity began to influence each other, their orbital velocities were comparable.

Therefore the effect on Mars' orbit of the Hellas impact is of the order of 1/35,000 or less than 1/100 of 1%.

The eccentricity of Mars orbit is actually several whole percent. This must therefore have come from something (or an accumulation of somethings) much bigger than Hellas.

If you believe in fairies, try the supposed Northern Lowlands impactor...

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