Impact Craters
An impact crater (impact basin or sometimes crater) is a circular depression on a surface, usually referring to a planet, moon, asteroid, or other celestial body, caused by a collision of a smaller body (meteorite) with the surface. In the center of craters on Earth a crater lake often accumulates, and a central island or peak (caused by rebounding crustal rock after the impact) is usually a prominent feature in the lake.
Ancient craters whose relief has disappeared leaving only a "ghost" of a crater are known as palimpsests. Although it might be assumed that a major impact on the Earth would leave behind absolutely unmistakable evidence, in fact the gradual processes that change the surface of the Earth tend to cover the effects of impacts. Fortunately, scientists have discovered some untouched craters around the universe.
Impact craters found on different planetary regions
The Moon
The surface of the moon is scarred with millions of impact craters. There is no atmosphere on the moon to help protect it from bombardment from potential impactors (most objects from space burn up in the Earth's atmosphere). Also, there is no erosion (wind or water) and little geologic activity to wear away these craters, so they remain unchanged until another new impact changes it. These craters range in size up to many hundreds of kilometers, but the most enormous craters have been flooded by lava, and only parts of the outline are visible. The total area of the moon is 37 930 000 square kilometers.
One of these craters found, is the Alfrancus C. It has a maximum diameter of 10 km and a maximum radius of 5km. It has an estimated depth of 1.2km.
Alfrancus C
Planet Mercury
Mercury is in many ways similar to the Moon: its surface is heavily cratered and very old; it has no plate tectonics. On the other hand, Mercury is much denser than the Moon (5.43 gm/cm3 vs 3.34). Mercury is the second densest major body in the solar system, after Earth. Actually Earth's density is due in part to gravitational compression; if not for this, Mercury would be denser than Earth. Mercury has a total area of 75 000 000 square kilometers and is the closest planet to the sun in the solor system. This indicates that Mercury's dense iron core is relatively larger than Earth's, probably comprising the majority of the planet. Mercury therefore has only a relatively thin silicate mantle and crust.
about to take place. All a meteor is, is a chunk of rock of that is being
Crater Lake is a result of a volcanic explosion that happened about 7,000 years ago. A long time ago, the pacific oceanic plate was gradually moving under the pacific continental plate in the process of plate tectonics. The pressure shaped the land to move upward and create a line of mountains that are currently located on the Cascade Range. These lavas piled and cooled on top of each other resulting in mountains like Mazama and Hood. Mount Mazama was built by successive flows of both andesite and dacite lavas. Mount Mazama was a stratovolcano, which was about 12,000 feet high after series of ash, cinders, and pumice explosions built it upward. During it?s final eruption the magma chamber was emptying and the underlying support for the mountain was lost and the walls of the volcano began to collapse. In just a matter of days the top of the mountain was destroyed and left a caldera. A caldera is a word used by geologists to describe large basin-shaped volcanic depressions. The destruction Mount Mazama was what marked the beginning of the formation of Crater Lake. The caldera was about 3,000 feet deep and over time, snow and rai...
Not long ago on the 15th of February 2013 an asteroid named 2012 DA14 merely scrapped the earth’s surface by a tiny margin, even closer than some satellites. According to the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) the asteroid was 17,200 miles above our planet's surface, which may seem a long way from earth. However, in terms how big the earth is compared to the 17,200 miles, we can acknowledge that many people were saved from death.
First, is a blinding, 10 million degree, heat flash from a nuclear reaction which can instantly and severely burn the retina if viewed directly. Milliseconds after detonation, an absolutely vaporizing wave of nuclear energy is released: diminishing anything that stands in the way, including humans. following the blast, is a nuclear fallout which sees a continuously rising mushroom cloud begin to spew millions of pounds of cancerous dust which, if consumed, cause tremendous hair loss, cancer consuming the body, and probable death 50-100 days after exposure. Very few are still alive to tell personal stories about witnessing the atom bomb simply because anyone within 1500 kilometers of the initial blast
Skeptics wonder why there are numerous footprints of the astronauts while there is not an impression caused by the lunar module. Yes, it weighs seventeen tons, but puny minded people don’t realize that it landed on a super thin layer of sand, also when the module was landing the descent engines blew all the sand around while it was landing so it basically just landed on a rock where it’s not possible to leave an impression. Also, astronauts “Armstrong and Aldrin spent more than two hours outside their spacecraft on the moon” (NASA). Of course there are plenty of footprints. The sand settled before the astronauts exited the module and walked on the surface. People wonder why the footprints are so well preserved, but there is no wind on the moon to tamper with them as it would happen on Earth. Skeptics wonder why there is not a blast crater from landing the module. Again, this is due to the fact that they landed on tough rock. Even if they were to land on softer rock it still wouldn’t form a crater considering “the amount of thrust being produced by the engines at the point of landing and takeoff is very low in comparison to a landing on Earth because of the relative lack of gravitational pull” (Holt).
I think the moon in landing in 1969 was real because of the rocks they got from the moon's surface and also because with a satellite image of the moon they say an image of tire marks on the surface. I know it could be a satellite or something but what are the chances of that going on that exact spot. And from one of the probes NASA sent up to the moon was found by the astronauts and brought back to NASA. People think that the rocks brought back from the moon was a meteorite from the moon but if it was how would they locate that if it was a meteoroid. And the meteoroid should have turned into dust and just have disappeared when it went into our orbit.
Most big asteroids are ball shaped. Smaller asteroids, which are usually broken off of a larger asteroid, come in a lot of different shapes. All asteroids have craters that form when they bump or crash into other asteroids. The older the asteroid, the more times it has been hit and the more craters it has.
Core/Interior: The Earth has three layers to it's interior, the inner core, outer core, and mantle. Of these the outer core is thought to be liquid. Like most of the terrestrial planets at birth, the Earth has been molten and undergone some differentiation allowing the heavy material which is consisting mostly of an iron, nickel, and cobalt core making it's density five and a half times the density of water.
These craters were formed differently as the one that gave rise to the Vredefort Dome was formed when the asteroid hit the earth surface and the Pilanesburg was formed after the volcanic eruption. Linda & Elkins-Tanton (2006:84) supports this statement. As these craters were eroded, they gave rise to the Vredefort Dome and the Pilanesberg. Both of these landforms were formed approximately 3000 million years ago (Grab & Knight, 2015:32). Both landforms are recognized as geotourism. Today both landforms remain circular in
Asteroid Collision With The Earth Experiment ---------- To investigate the effects of an asteroid impact on Earth through a small scale simulation of the. I shall be measuring the depth of the crater. caused by a steel ball bearing being dropped from different heights. into the sand of the sand.
By the third millennium, mankind is actively studying and exploring space. The number of space flights is increasing and they are constantly running into a number of problems. One of these is a question of the increasing contamination of space with objects from our explorations. These objects are better known as space debris or simply said – space junk.
Mercury is the first planet closest to the Sun. It is the smallest planet in the solar system. Mercury rotates three times in two of its years. One of Mercury's days is equal to 176 Earth days because its rotation is very slow. What is weird is that its day is longer than its year. Mercury’s year is about 88 earth days the shortest in the solar system. It has the shortest year because it is closest to the Sun.
There are eight planets in our solar system. The first planet closest to the sun is Mercury. Therefore, Mercury is the hottest planet. Mercury’s surface is cold. However, in the daytime Mercury can get as hot as 840 degrees fahrenheit, which is 450 degrees celsius. During night time the temperature can decrease to 275 degrees fahrenheit, or -170 degrees celsius. Mercury is the smallest planet. Mercury is the quickest planet to move around the sun. Its speed is approximately 112,000 mph along its elliptical orbit. Mercury can move around the sun in 88 days. There are craters in mercury, and scientist believe ice is in the craters.