One of the world’s most well-preserved craters can be found buried deep within the Sahara Desert. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us above the nearly round Tenoumer Crater in Mauritania on Asteroid Day.

The Tenoumer Crater is roughly 1.9 kilometers wide and may be seen in the image’s center. The crater’s walls are 110 meters high, while the floor is filled with sediments that are 200 to 300 meters deep.

People argued for a long time about whether the crater was made by a volcano or a space rock. Basalt-like rocks scattered around the crater gave the impression that it was an old volcano. However, a closer examination of the structure showed that the ‘lava’ that had solidified in the crater was in fact rock that had been melted by a meteorite impact.

The crater is surrounded by a broad plain of extraordinarily old rocks that were laid down hundreds of millions of years before the first dinosaurs walked the planet. Tenoumer is substantially younger than the rock it dwells in, ranging in age from 10,000 to 30,000 years old.

This false-color image from Sentinel-2 was taken on May 16, 2022, and it depicts the arid region that surrounds the crater. The colors seen in this area include various degrees of brown, tan, and orange.

Every year on June 30, the United Nations recognizes Asteroid Day as a day of public education about the dangers of asteroid strikes. In the Solar System, more than a million asteroids have been found, and many more are likely to exist.

Astronomers from all around the world are looking up to keep us safe, cooperating with ESA’s Planetary Defence Office, Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre, and other organizations to make sure we are informed well in advance if an asteroid is identified on a collision track.

Image Credit: ESA

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