The largest impact crater in the Solar System is on Mars, created by an object the size of the Moon. It is also the largest canyon in the Solar System and was only confirmed as an impact crater in 2008. The second largest impact crater is on the Moon, caused by a comet or asteroid during Late Heavy Bombardment.
The largest known impact crater in the Solar System is a huge unnamed scar on the surface of Mars, 10,600 km long and 8,500 km wide. It is thought to have been created in the early days of the Solar System, when an object the size of the Moon nearly struck Mars, but instead scratched a deep scar in the planet. Something similar happened to Earth, removing so much material that it later came together to make the Moon. These large impacts are thought to have been created by planetoids forming at Lagrange points, gravity wells located at three other points in Earth’s orbit. Mars also has its Lagrange points.
The scar of Mars is also considered the largest canyon in the Solar System, approximately 25 times longer than the Grand Canyon. It is also the only confirmed canyon known to exist due to an encounter with a bolide (asteroid or planetoid) rather than water erosion or surface cracking due to native geological processes. The realization that the scar is an impact crater is fairly recent, only being published in Science in 2008.
The second largest impact crater in the Solar System is the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the Moon, which is 2,500 km (1,553 mi) wide and 15 km (9.3 mi) deep. The impact crater was produced when a large comet or asteroid struck the Moon during Late Heavy Bombardment, a period of intense impact activity between 3800 and 4100 million years ago where much of the debris from the formation of the Solar System was still in space and had to find a place to land. The South Pole-Aitken Basin is one of the few impact craters in the Solar System to be called a “basin” rather than a crater. The only impact crater of comparable size other than the one previously described is Hellas Planitina on Mars, approximately 2,300 km (1,429 mi) in extent. The South Pole-Aitken Basin is the dominant feature of the far side of the Moon, acting as the most significant dent in the lunar highlands.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
