Questions tagged [crater]
Questions about a depression on the surface of solid celestrial ojects, use also when asking about maar or caldera.
48
questions
0
votes
1
answer
129
views
If the lunar maria are impact craters, why don't they have central peaks?
If the lunar maria are impact craters, why don't they have central peaks? They're as smooth as a baby's behind!
- 1,115
1
vote
2
answers
75
views
Are there any specific examples of overlapping impact and volcanic craters on astronomical bodies beyond Earth?
This answer to Can a crater form inside another crater points out that in addition to impact-on-impact double craters there can be volcanic double craters, and even a one on the other (though no ...
- 30.7k
7
votes
1
answer
459
views
Have micrometeoroids been observed impacting the moon's surface?
Have any cameras on the moon's surface directly observed micrometeoroid (or larger!) impacts? Presumably small craters form when impacts occur and information could be gleaned from observing the ...
- 151
4
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Can a crater form inside another crater
Simple question.
Can a crater, theoretically, form inside another crater? Say if a very large one just happened to, by sheer cosmic coincidence, had another smaller meteorite fall inside and impact ...
- 75
3
votes
1
answer
135
views
Details of the Moon's night photographed in a total solar eclipse
I didn't know that in photographs of total solar eclipses you could see details of the Moon's night.
To my surprise, look at this beautiful photo of the solar eclipse of 2024/04/23 taken by amateur ...
- 2,262
7
votes
1
answer
173
views
Why are lunar craters preferentially north-south aligned?
Loading the dataset from Robbins 2018, A New Global Database of Lunar Impact Craters >1–2 km: 1. Crater Locations and Sizes, Comparisons With Published Databases, and Global Analysis which I ...
- 272
1
vote
1
answer
173
views
how big would an asteroid have to be to leave a crater on Earth
if an asteroid were to hit earth, how big would it have to be to make a crater and not just vaporise in the atmosphere?
- 1,464
9
votes
0
answers
91
views
The presence of maars on the Moon
Wondering if there's any evidence to date of the existence of maar craters on the Moon? If not, how probable is it that the moon ever supported the necessary conditions for maars to form?
A report ...
- 91
8
votes
1
answer
236
views
Does Mars get hit by as many meteors as the Earth?
The Moon gets bombarded by meteors at the same rate as the Earth according to
What the moon's craters reveal about earth's history
Does Mars or any other planet get bombarded at the same rate as the ...
user48394
2
votes
1
answer
49
views
Mars crater nomenclature
The Wikipedia page for planetary nomenclature states that small craters don't follow the same rule as large craters as far . What is the cutoff between small and large craters (as far as naming is ...
- 17.6k
8
votes
3
answers
343
views
How do we know that ice from the S1094b event was from Mars surface and not from the impactor?
The recent news story NASA’s InSight Lander Detects Stunning Meteoroid Impact on Mars, about an impact that occurred on Mars on December 24, 2021 (event S1094b), shows a picture of the impact crater, ...
- 1,939
4
votes
2
answers
139
views
Could a planet have a massive crater without collapsing due to gravity / other factors?
A severely destroyed planet is a popular trope in media. Here are a few examples from fiction with pictures (spoiler warning).
A crater with a diameter 1/3rd the size of the planet itself:
Earth (...
- 41
4
votes
1
answer
76
views
When were Swift and Voltaire discovered?
Deimos -- Mars' smallest moon -- has only two named features: the Swift crater and the Voltaire crater. Based on the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, their names were approved in 1973.
Given the ...
- 17.6k
8
votes
1
answer
161
views
How new is this crater?
I've been looking at HiRISE images, and this description says that this crater is new, which is why we can see the bright ejecta. How long does it typically take for the bright ejecta to erode away? ...
- 17.6k
3
votes
1
answer
141
views
How did the mountain range form in Galle crater?
In the Galle crater, there is a mountain range that is shaped like a circle segment that makes it look like a smiley face. How did this mountain range form? Is it a central ring that formed with the ...
- 17.6k