It does get, about ten times as many meteorites hitting it as the Earth does, yes. And also - because its atmosphere is thin, a near vacuum, then even relatively tiny meteorites make it all the way to the surface intact.
Our rovers on Mars have found many of those meteorites. Also fresh craters, our orbiters have found quite a few of those also. So does get hit quite a bit.
Mars Orbiter Spots Huge New Crater | Video
The crater there is about 50 meters diameter.
They've found about 400 new impact craters on Mars so far with the Mars orbiters - ones that were not there in one frame and present in the next one (often taken weeks, months or years later - this one was unusual that they have before and after pictures just one day apart).
I think it's a minor reason - compared with many others. The chance that any spot on Mars will get hit is low. None of our rovers have yet been hit by a devastating meteorite.
But is a bit ironic if your motivation to go to Mars is to avoid asteroid impacts - to go to a planet far more likely to be hit by a giant asteroid :).
But - that's not a good motivation anyway - as the chances that Earth is hit by a giant asteroid even as large as the one that brought an end to the dinosaurs is minute - and would not be extinction causing.
Our seas are likely to boil dry before we hit an asteroid that big. Just doesn't happen any more - next most likely one to happen is if Mercury gets disturbed from its orbit by resonances with Jupiter a few hundred million years from now .
It's not our problem. It's a problem for whatever species we or other Earth creatures have evolved into by then - long enough into the future for humans to re-evolve from the first ever multicellular life forms a second time - all over again - they will need to meet that problem in the remote probability that it does happen.
If not a truly huge giant impact - then the seas boiling dry, one or the other will happen, but not for a while yet. Not that huge that it makes a technological ET extinct.
Our rovers on Mars have found many of those meteorites. Also fresh craters, our orbiters have found quite a few of those also. So does get hit quite a bit.
Mars Orbiter Spots Huge New Crater | Video
They've found about 400 new impact craters on Mars so far with the Mars orbiters - ones that were not there in one frame and present in the next one (often taken weeks, months or years later - this one was unusual that they have before and after pictures just one day apart).
I think it's a minor reason - compared with many others. The chance that any spot on Mars will get hit is low. None of our rovers have yet been hit by a devastating meteorite.
But is a bit ironic if your motivation to go to Mars is to avoid asteroid impacts - to go to a planet far more likely to be hit by a giant asteroid :).
But - that's not a good motivation anyway - as the chances that Earth is hit by a giant asteroid even as large as the one that brought an end to the dinosaurs is minute - and would not be extinction causing.
Our seas are likely to boil dry before we hit an asteroid that big. Just doesn't happen any more - next most likely one to happen is if Mercury gets disturbed from its orbit by resonances with Jupiter a few hundred million years from now .
It's not our problem. It's a problem for whatever species we or other Earth creatures have evolved into by then - long enough into the future for humans to re-evolve from the first ever multicellular life forms a second time - all over again - they will need to meet that problem in the remote probability that it does happen.
If not a truly huge giant impact - then the seas boiling dry, one or the other will happen, but not for a while yet. Not that huge that it makes a technological ET extinct.
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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