Martian craters

Okay kiddo, have you ever seen a snickerdoodle cookie with a little dent in the middle? Well, Mars, the big red planet in space has lots of craters that look like big dents too. These craters are basically like scars on the planet's surface that were created a really long time ago.

You know how sometimes you drop things and they make a little dent in the ground? Well, sometimes really big rocks, called asteroids or meteoroids, crash land on Mars and make much bigger dents. When these big rocks hit Mars, they make a huge explosion that can be heard all the way from outer space!

Then, when the explosion starts to calm down, it makes a big hole in the ground where the rock hit. This big hole is called a crater.

Scientists can study these craters to learn more about the history of Mars because each one tells a story about what happened in the past. They can tell how old a crater is or how big the rock was that caused it. These craters help scientists understand what Mars was like a long, long time ago.

So, just like how a snickerdoodle's dent tells you that someone took a bite out of it, Martian craters tell scientists what happened when a big rock crashed into the planet.