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Scientists who study Mars on Thursday revealed the remarkable Christmas gift they received from the planet last year.

On December 24, 2021, a meteorite hit Mars’ surface, triggering magnitude 4 tremors, which were detected by NASA’s InSight spacecraft  — which landed on the planet four years ago — some 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) away. 

The true origin of this so-called marsquake was only confirmed when the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was able to take a picture of the newly formed crater created by the hit when it flew over the impact site less than 24 hours later. 

The image is impressive, showing blocks of ice that were spewed up onto the planet’s surface around the 492-foot (150-meter) wide and 70-foot (21-meter) deep hole.

The crater is the largest ever observed since the MRO began its Mars orbit 16 years ago.  

And though meteorite impacts on Mars are not rare, “we never thought we’d see anything that big,” Ingrid Daubar, who works on the InSight and MRO missions, told reporters at a press conference Thursday. 

Researchers estimate that the meteorite itself would have measured between 16 to 39 feet across. An object of that size would have disintegrated in Earth’s atmosphere before falling to the ground here. 

“It is simply the biggest meteorite impact on the ground that we have heard since science has been done with seismographs or seismometers,” said planetology professor Philippe Lognonne, who participated in two studies related to the observation published in the journal Science Thursday. 

NASA released an audio recording of the collision, which was made by speeding up the vibrations collected by the seismometer.

– ‘Useful’ ice presence –

The valuable information gathered in studying the crash will contribute to deeper knowledge of Mars’ interior and the history of how the planet was created, scientists said.

The presence of ice, in particular, is “surprising,” said Daubar, who also co-authored the two studies. 

“This is the warmest spot on Mars, the closest to the equator, we’ve ever seen water ice,” she said.

In addition to the information this discovery offers about the Martian climate, the presence of water at this latitude — and not just near the poles — could prove “really useful” for future human visitors to Mars, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division Lori Glaze said. 

“We’d want to land the astronauts as near to the equator as possible,” she said, to take advantage of warmer temperatures. 

“That ice could be converted into water, oxygen or hydrogen,” Glaze said.

The impact was powerful enough to generate seismic waves both down to the planet’s core and across its crust horizontally, making it possible to study Mars’ internal structure — revealing that the crust on which InSight sits is less dense than the crust the waves traveled over from the crater site. 

The end of InSight’s mission — which recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes in total — could come in the next couple of months, according to Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, due to the expected accumulation of dust on the lander’s solar power panel. 

It’s “sad,” he said, while celebrating that the probe worked “marvelously” for four years. 

Iranian protesters on Thursday defied a deadly crackdown by security forces against nearly six weeks of women-led protests, as Tehran vowed to punish those behind a mass shooting that killed 15 worshippers at a shrine.

In the latest violent bid to crush demonstrations sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody last month, security forces opened fire and killed “at least eight people” since Wednesday evening, according to Amnesty International.

Iran has been gripped by its biggest protests for years since Amini died on September 16, three days after her Tehran arrest by the notorious morality police for allegedly breaching the country’s dress code for women.

“Iran’s security forces killed at least eight people since last night as they again opened fire on mourners and protesters” in at least four provinces, Amnesty said, condemning the “reckless and unlawful use of firearms”.

On Wednesday, as thousands mourned 22-year-old Amini, Iran was also rocked by an attack claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group in which, state media said, a gunman killed at least 15 people at a shrine in the southern city of Shiraz.

Ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi appeared to link the two tragedies when he declared that “the intention of the enemy is to disrupt the country’s progress, and then these riots pave the ground for terrorist acts”.

Raisi vowed “a severe response” over the mass killing at the Shah Cheragh mausoleum following evening prayers.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for united efforts against the “plot” by Iran’s enemies.

– ‘The army supports us’ –

The latest protests follow a massive ceremony Wednesday marking 40 days since Amini’s death, held in her hometown of Saqez, Kurdistan province.

Iran’s ISNA news agency said nearly 10,000 people had gathered there, but many thousands more were seen making their way in cars, on motorbikes and on foot, in videos widely shared online.

The protests sparked by Amini’s death have been led by young women who have burned their headscarves and confronted security forces.

Despite heightened security measures, columns of mourners had poured into Saqez on Wednesday, paying tribute at her grave at the end of the traditional 40-day mourning period.

The Hengaw human rights group reported that security forces shot dead at least three people during protests in the western city of Mahabad and at least two others in Baneh, also in the west.

In Mahabad, protesters returning from the funeral of another demonstrator had surrounded government buildings, the group said.

“We should not mourn for our youth, we should avenge them,” they chanted, according to the Norway-based organisation that monitors violations in Kurdish-populated areas.

Elsewhere in the city, a video posted on the Iran Wire news website showed crowds setting fire to the governor’s office.

Online monitor NetBlocks later reported a “major internet disruption” in West Azerbaijan province “with high impact to Mahabad”.

On Thursday protesters shouted “the army supports us”, and people fleeing gunfire from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sought refuge at a barracks in Saqez, Hengaw said.

It added that the Guards had “disarmed the army forces” on Wednesday, according to witnesses, but did not elaborate.

Mourners also gathered Thursday at the grave of 16-year-old Nika Shahkarami near the western city of Khorramabad, 40 days after she was killed by security forces, the US-based HRANA rights group said.

“I’ll kill, I’ll kill, whoever killed my sister,” they could be heard chanting, in a video HRANA posted on Twitter.

Footage obtained by BBC Persian and posted on Twitter by rights activists shows security forces advancing across a bridge in Khorramabad toward protesters who hurl rocks as they retreat after what sounds like gun shots ring out. 

Protests continued into the night, with rights groups and social media channel 1500tasvir, which chronicles rights violations by Iran’s security forces, posting footage of large crowds chanting in Tehran, Mashhad in Iran’s northeast and other cities.

– ‘Bloody shows’ –

Some activists behind the daily protests over Amini’s death, which have evolved into a broader campaign to end the Islamic republic founded in 1979, have raised suspicions over the timing of the Shiraz attack.

“For its survival, for distracting the protesters, for justifying killings and crackdowns, the Islamic republic always puts on such bloody shows,” one of them, Atena Daemi, tweeted.

Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights says the security forces’ crackdown on the Amini protests has cost the lives of at least 141 demonstrators, including at least 29 children.

Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry summoned German ambassador Hans-Udo Muzel to protest comments by German officials which “incite riots” in the Islamic republic, IRNA reported.

On Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said her country would tighten its rules for entry to Iran, warning “there can be no ‘business as usual’ in bilateral relations with a state that treats its own citizens with such contempt”.

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Climate activists glued themselves to Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” at a Dutch museum on Thursday in the latest stunt targeting famous artworks, but the painting was undamaged.

Three men were arrested after the attack at The Hague’s Mauritshuis museum on the 1665 masterpiece which has inspired a bestselling novel and a Hollywood film.

The trio were Belgian, one 42-year-old and two 45-year-olds. “They remain in custody and are being questioned,” The Hague police said.

Social media images showed a man wearing a “Just Stop Oil” T-shirt gluing his head to the painting, while another glued his hand to the wall and a third emptied out a tin of what appeared to be tomato soup.

The stunt comes after activists threw soup at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” at the National Gallery in London on October 14 and smeared mashed potato over a Claude Monet painting in Germany. 

“Art is defenceless and we strongly condemn trying to damage it for whichever cause,” the Mauritshuis said in a statement to AFP.

– ‘Not damaged’ –

The museum said the stunt took place at around 2 pm (1400 GMT) and that police were called.

“One person glued his head to the painting, which was behind glass, and the other person glued his hand to the green wall next to the painting. A third person threw an unknown substance at the painting,” it said.

The Mauritshuis added: “We have immediately inspected the painting, which was done by our restorers. Fortunately the painting… was not damaged.” 

It will be back on public display “as soon as possible”.

Dutch museums had stepped up security after the “Sunflowers” stunt and the potato attack on Monet’s $111-million “Les Meules” (Haystacks) at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam on Sunday.

Dozens of people were gathered inside the Mauritshuis waiting for news after Thursday’s incident, while security guards told them not to get too close to the other paintings, an AFP reporter said.

The entrance to the room where the “Girl with a Pearl Earring” normally hangs was blocked off by a large reproduction oil painting and a guard said it would likely be closed for the rest of the day.

Two police vans were parked outside the museum.

– ‘Beautiful and priceless’ –

A video on Twitter showed a shaven-headed activist sticking his head to the “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. Another poured a red substance from a tin over the head of the first activist.

A third man in a white “Just Stop Oil” T-shirt shouted as he glued his hand to the wall.

“How do you feel when you see something beautiful and priceless being apparently destroyed before your eyes,” he said. “This painting is protected by glass but the future of our children is not protected.”

Museum visitors shouted “shame”, “obscene” and “you’re stupid”.

“Even though I might be in favour of what they want to achieve, this is not the way to do it and I don’t think they will get much support from the public,” museum visitor Frans Smit, 59, said.

Fellow visitor Jaap de Carpentier Wolf, 56, was more sympathetic.

“I think it’s good to draw attention to the climate,” he said. “It’s changing, it’s very hot in The Hague today, so we have to do something”.

Art lovers have long been fascinated by Dutch master Vermeer’s painting of the young woman with an enigmatic look, wearing a blue and yellow turban, a pearl hanging from her ear.

It also provided inspiration for Tracy Chevalier’s 1999 novel “Girl with a Pearl Earring” which gave rise to an Oscar-nominated film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth.

Leftist challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s lead over far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro has widened slightly three days from Brazil’s polarizing presidential runoff election, according to a poll published Thursday.

Lula has 53 percent voter support to 47 percent for Bolsonaro, according to the poll from the Datafolha institute — up from a four-point gap (52 percent to 48 percent) the previous week.

The figures exclude voters who plan to cast blank or spoiled ballots — five percent of respondents, Datafolha estimates. Undecided voters represented just two percent.

The margin of error for the poll, which was based on interviews with 4,580 people from Tuesday to Thursday, was plus or minus two percentage points.

Lula, the charismatic but tarnished ex-president who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, won the first round of the election on October 2 with 48 percent of the vote, to 43 percent for former army captain Bolsonaro.

The candidates will face off in a final debate Friday night.

Bolsonaro and his allies have attacked polling firms, accusing them of bias.

He outperformed pollsters’ expectations in the first round, triumphantly boasting afterwards: “We beat the lie.”

Lula, who turned 77 Thursday, leads among women (52 percent), the poor and working-class (61 percent), and Catholics (55 percent), according to Datafolha.

Bolsonaro, 67, leads among evangelical Christians (62 percent) and wealthier voters (59 percent).

Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik was on Thursday declared the president of Bosnia’s Serb entity, election officials announced, following a recount after the opposition cried foul.

The election for the presidency of the Republika Srpska (RS), was one of several votes held on October 2 at the central level and in the two entities, the RS and the Muslim-Croat federation, that make up the Balkan country.

Bosnia has been governed by this dysfunctional administrative system created by the 1995 Dayton Agreement that succeeded in ending the 1990’s conflict, but largely failed in providing a framework for the country’s political development. 

The recount “confirmed that the candidate Milorad Dodik representing the Serb people and who was in the lead… and remained so with the greatest number of votes won,” said Suad Arnautovic, chairman of Bosnia’s central election commission.

According to the official count, Dodik won 47.06 percent of the ballots cast, securing just over 300,000 votes, while opposition candidate Jelena Trivic secured 42.84 percent of the vote.

The final figures for the race were still being compiled, according to officials, who said the opposition had a narrow window to contest their findings. 

Shortly after the electoral commission’s announcement, Dodik told reporters, “the interests of the RS” would be his priority.

“I call on all political factors to work for stability and peace, co-operation and understanding. We will need a lot of know-how to be able to understand, all together…  the difficult times that are coming,” he said.

But one opposition leader, Branislav Borenovic, announced a legal challenge to the electoral commission’s decision.

“To take such a decision is to turn a blind eye to the obvious electoral plundering. If we leave it at that… it means we are living in a dark age of democracy… and that corruption is the only winner of the elections,” Borenovic was quoted by BNTV television as saying.

Hours ahead of the electoral commission’s announcement of the result, the US embassy in Bosnia issued a barely concealed warning to Dodik.

“Any action taken toward the dissolution of Bosnia-Herzegovina would violate Dayton and carry grave consequences,” the embassy tweeted.

– Stoking tensions –

A preliminary count following the election had given Dodik victory — with the Kremlin-friendly leader winning 48 percent of the vote compared to 43 percent for Trivic.

However, on the day after the election, opposition parties accused Dodik and his party of “organised plundering of the elections” and demanded a recount.

Thursday’s announcement comes just days after Dodik rallied thousands of supporters in the RS capital Banja Luka, where the long-time leader of the country’s Serbs remained defiant he would be victorious.

The recount cements Dodik’s third term as RS president after he completed a stint in the tripartite presidency. 

For years, Dodik has been stoking tensions with frequent calls for Bosnia’s Serbs to separate even further from the country’s central institutions, earning him fresh sanctions from the United States in January. 

Running on an anti-corruption ticket, Dodik’s rival Trivic — a 39-year-old professor of economics — sought to offer an alternative to RS voters, while also trumpeting the Serbs’ desire to maintain autonomy in Bosnia. 

October’s elections saw the three established ethnic parties secure major wins. 

The lone exception was the defeat of Bakir Izetbegovic, a two-time member of the country’s tripartite presidency who also leads the main Bosniak party — the SDA.

Izetbegovic was clobbered by Denis Becirovic in a double-digit landslide win.