How to make an impression.

in #science6 years ago (edited)

The Herschel crater on Saturn’s moon Mimas at this precise angle, in the photo below, shows just how much of an impression a body with a large amount of momentum colliding with another can make.

This photo shows the bulge around the crater that is created from the colliders material that has been injected deeper into the moon by the sheer power of the strike.

Crater walls, we are all likely, very familiar with and the shadows also emphasize these nicely along with the central uplift created as the void created by the impact bounces back.

On earth this would be a rather sizeable mountain.

PIA20515 - Mimas' Mountain (cropped).jpg
By NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute - NASA Photojournal, Public Domain, Link

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It must've hit with quite some impact to turn a moon into a liquid!

Some matter is vaporized and some is liquidised and injected into the remaining solid material

This is from a large impact here on earth, the pink rock is unaltered granite, the black is impact breccia composed of injected melted material and unaltered surrounding rocks that came along for the high velocity ride.

Holy shit. I wonder how deep it goes. Where in the world is the photo from?

Great place to visit geologically.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vredefort_crater

This punched a hole all the way through the earth's sedimentary layers in the area all the way down to basement granite

Vredefort crater
The Vredefort crater is the largest verified impact crater on Earth, more than 300 kilometres (190 mi) across when it was formed. What remains of it is located in the present-day Free State province of South Africa and named after the town of Vredefort, which is situated near its centre. Although the crater itself has long since eroded away, the remaining geological structures at its centre are known as the Vredefort Dome or Vredefort impact structure. The crater is estimated to be 2.023 billion years old (± 4 million years), with impact being in the Paleoproterozoic Era.

lol, gratz on rep 78, it just updated xD

News to me. Thanks, How many is that over 78 these days? can't be many I don't think.

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