An Indian satellite orbiting Mars observed a massive mushroom cloud explosion on the surface recently. And conspiracy theorists’ imaginations are running wild about what may have caused it, suggesting an ancient Martian nuclear bomb went off and other crazy theories.
But how about the cloud and its crater being simply caused by a meteorite impact? By the looks of Mars’ surface it’s a given the planet is routinely bombarded by chunks of space debris from the nearby asteroid belt where, at this time, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is currently orbiting Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt.