What happens when two objects of the same size collide with a planet at the same time? This is the result.
It happens when an asteroid enters the atmosphere and splits into two or more pieces before hitting the Earth. But sometimes two asteroids orbiting each other can collide with a planet as well.
In its 4.6 billion year history, Mars has had its fair share of falling asteroid strikes and imploding comets.
Today, there are at least 43,000 impact craters scattered on the surface of the Red Planet.
Astronomers discovered this double-hit crater consisting of two overlapping basins; In the crater-ridden southern highlands of Mars just south of a large crater called the Huygens Basin, a severely affected area nearly 4 billion years ago.
Some have also hypothesized that the double craters are the result of double asteroids consisting of two or more rocky bodies in close contact or orbiting each other.
It is believed that only about 2% of all asteroids consist of two or more such objects, but this does not mean that they sometimes cannot collide with a planet and leave a scar.
It is uncommon to see dual-effect craters, and we sometimes find them on Mars and even on Earth, although they do not all form in the same way.
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Photography 📸 @nasa