Mars gets walloped by space rocks way more than scientists thought

Watch out, Martians.

Meteorites slam into Mars five times more than planetary scientists thought, a finding published in the journal Nature Astronomy. This makes impacts on the Red Planet about a daily occurrence. A 26-foot-wide (8-meter) crater forms almost each day, and a nearly 100-foot (30-meter) crater is created once a month.

Previous estimates of these Martian impacts largely came from studying crater imagery on the moon and from Mars-orbiting craft. But unprecedented seismic data ...