A new martian crater chronology: Implications for Jezero crater
arXiv:2102.05625 · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/abe417
Abstract
Crater chronologies are a fundamental tool to assess relative and absolute ages of planetary surfaces when direct radiometric dating is not available. Martian crater chronologies are derived from lunar crater spatial densities on terrains with known radiometric ages, and thus they critically depend on the extrapolation Moon to Mars. This extrapolation requires knowledge of the time evolution of the impact flux, including contributions from various impactor populations, factors that are not trivially connected to the dynamical evolution of the early Solar System. In this paper, we will present a new martian crater chronology based on current dynamical models, and consider the main sources of uncertainties. The new martian crater chronology is discussed using two interesting applications: Jezero crater's dark terrain (relevant to the NASA Mars 2020 mission) and the southern heavily cratered highlands. [abridged]
arXiv commentAJ, in press
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