What Created This Smooth, 200-Mile-Long Trench On Mars?

The answer is simple, Tremors.

It's where manhattan island came from

Smooth is relative. If it was an oblique impact, which way was it going? Also, how deep did it get? Check out the, three distinct width increases of the crater and that unusual harpoon-like crater shape, right side bottom of the photo above.

Something that seems a bit obvious, but I'm gonna need to point it out:
While the crater itself was probably made by an impact, isn't it safe to say the smoothness is just the impact crater being filled in with dust and sand blown in by the martian winds? Like a desert the sand may have been blown over the top of one side of the ridge and now is trapped, unable to get out, and not affected by the wind as much as it was.. so now it's settled in the center of the crater as a large smooth surface.

Probably a asteroid skimmed it and then shot back out to space. With very little atmosphere this is much easier to accomplish on Mars than on Earth.

holy hell its a landing strip!!

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth."

-Vladimir Lenin

Two rational answers to this:

a) This is the imprint of King Kong's penis
b) They are secretly building a half pipe for the next x-games

If you think about it, its surprising this doesn't happen more often. Think about an object that is in some sort of orbit, or flies near the planet every year, or zillion years. It gets closer and closer, and just grazes the planet. Or even think of all the things that ALMOST hit planets. Some have to just barely hit them at really shallow angles. It doesn't really make sense that they would come straight in.

It really looks like some thing huge just flopped their giant dick onto the planet

Well at least we know what's on some people's minds.....

I'm going with dry lake bed....

Mass effect round must have glanced off the planet, dang reapers gonna get us.

Does anyone else get the impression that there are people who sit on Popsci all day just to be the first to leave their funny and witty remarks on the article. Actually they are neither. Get a life and try being constructive for once in your lives.

xiromisho said it best. thats what i think happened, the dust blew in and made to site look smooth and since it the place has natural wind breakers, the dust never blew away.
since this is near olympus mons, its probably a great place to consider as a landing sites. its a good site because many people believe that the caves found on the giant mountain volcano are the best place for people to begin settlement.

It's probably a dry lake bed.

The ejecta around the edges points toward a collision rather than a dry lake bed. The length definitely implies an oblique impact however there is good reason this does not happen more often – Gravity combined with drag!
Meteorites approaching a planet do not travel a straight line but arc toward the gravitational center. The faster they are moving relative to the planet the more they maintain their original trajectory the more they slow down the more they aim at the planets gravitational center. The Earths atmosphere causes significant slowing virtually ensuring the meteor will arc toward the planet and will not skip although it does happen (off the atmosphere that is, not off the surface). However Mar’s relatively weak atmosphere does not cause the same degree of slowing and therefore atmospheric fly throughs would be more common and planet impacting skips would be more probable.
What I find interesting is that it looks like the meteorite did not stick but hit and then left (skipped). I don’t know if that is fact but to my untrained eyes that’s what it looks like. Now an impact like this would create an awful lot of drag on the meteorite causing it to slow significantly.
Would it be enough to keep it in Mars orbit? Would it be enough to cause it to impact a final time further along?
Or did it bury itself at the end and the major build up of debris that should be there just erode away?

it's nearly impossible to be caused by aliens.The level of the civilization to land there would be so advanced that their ships wouldn't leave a mark in the first place.Furthermore i doubt that Mars has anything to offer to a civilization capable of travelling between solar systems

I would vote for a chain of impacts, as a large object broke apart, and the shattered pieces created a sieries of overlapping simultaneous craters.

The smoothness could easily be the accumulation of minute debris or the result of the impacting objects being liquid upon impact.

Spotcat - "I'm Commander Shepard and that's my favorite theory on Popsci..."

"What Created This Smooth, 200-Mile-Long Trench On Mars?"

Oh that, its from when I missed with my slingshot (glancing blow you know) :-)

@jamesbrett12

Man, you need to relax. Lighten up. Take a load off. Dont take things so seriously. Seriously.

I, personally, get a kick out of the whimsical responses I often find to a lot of these stories.

If you're looking for more constructive commentary, I suggest you look to a science journal, or perhaps even New Scientist.

In the mean time, all you guys making the great comments, keep on truckin, I'm getting a good chuckle out of them...

lmao, king kongs wee wee!

On earth, we have crop circles.

On mars, they have dust penises.

Problem solved.

@jaydub

My point was, if they were funny I would laugh. But they are not, the fact you find them funny and defend them speaks volumes about your intelligence also. Unfortunately the other sites you have quoted are quite the opposite end of the spectrum, so I'll stay here thank you. If need be I will keep up my ridicule of these idiots also.

I'm sure there are many others out there who agree with me. I suppose if these people are so desperately in need of showing to the world how witty they are then that is their prerogative, I just want them to know their place in the world. Who knows it may better their character as a result.

I'm very calm, thank you for caring x

Wow, so many dirty minds here. I think the most sensible explanation is that it's dust covering, but it could just as easily be aliens. If it was aliens, then we were probably visited by aliens as well. Heck they could be watching our obese selves right now. - AznHisoka, Moderator of http://www.worldchildfree.org/community/medifast-forum/

About 3 Pieces From an Asteroid Impacted at the Same Moment in a Row ...From Quite a Straight Angle !

The Dusty Penis shows signs of herpes. I mean you can call them whatever you want. "craters" I've also heard "Ooo That? It's just a pimple"

James is right! We all need to work together to try to understand what is going on in this picture.... I got it!
This could be in imprint of what is stuck up jamesbretts ass. Get a sense of humor and stop thinking your shit don't stink.

@Baseball

Ok, cretin. Back in your hole.

Wow!
What a skid mark!!

@thunderfoot
EXACTLY!!!

i think it is a lake bed..and i bet there is water ice underneath all that dust.

i'm not a genious so please, enlighten me with new knowledge if i am wrong.

i am open for corrections

I think andrimitum and xiromisho said it best.

And jamesbrett12 sounds like a dick.

"xiromisho said it best. thats what i think happened, the dust blew in and made to site look smooth and since it the place has natural wind breakers, the dust never blew away.
since this is near olympus mons, its probably a great place to consider as a landing sites. its a good site because many people believe that the caves found on the giant mountain volcano are the best place for people to begin settlement."

Would be interesting to discover that another civilization had already been there, considering the idea elevation and location. Sounds like it's worth sending an unmanned craft.