Impact cratering is the process by which hypervelocity collisions of extraterrestrial bodies (e.g., asteroids, comets, meteoroids) with a planetary surface excavate material and form characteristic circular depressions. It involves three main stages: contact and compression, where shock waves propagate and generate extreme pressures and temperatures; excavation, during which target material is displaced outward and upward, forming a transient cavity and ejecta; and modification, where gravitational collapse and rock rheology reshape the transient cavity into a final crater morphology. Impact cratering is a fundamental geologic process that influences crustal structure, surface evolution, and volatile redistribution on solid bodies throughout the Solar System.
A South Korean satellite has captured the first pictures of the moon's fresh crash scene caused by a stray SpaceX rocket.
Space Exploration
Aug 7, 2026
0
151
A SpaceX rocket that launched a pair of lunar landers slammed into the moon as predicted on Wednesday after drifting off course for the past year, scientists reported.
Space Exploration
Aug 6, 2026
1
21
A piece of a SpaceX rocket weighing four tonnes (4.4 tons) was believed to have unintentionally crashed into the moon on Wednesday, a collision that posed no danger to Earth but is expected to leave behind a lunar crater.
Space Exploration
Aug 5, 2026
0
12
A drifting SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the moon after launching a pair of lunar landers more than a year ago.
Space Exploration
Jul 31, 2026
0
44
Sixty-six million years ago, the six-mile-wide (10-kilometer-wide) Chicxulub asteroid crash-landed in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and changed life on Earth forever. The reign of the dinosaurs ended, and only creatures that ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 28, 2026
0
64
Ancient samples from the moon's far side are helping scientists uncover how asteroid impacts shaped the early solar system. The findings challenge decades of thinking about when those impacts occurred and offer new insights ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 24, 2026
0
62
On Aug. 5, 2026, an abandoned piece of space junk is predicted to crash into the moon near a spot called Einstein Crater. Astronomers will be watching because the collision and aftermath may be visible from Earth.
A rare CO chondrite meteorite was the probable impacter that struck Earth 66 million years ago, wiping out 75% of Earth's species, including nonavian dinosaurs. These findings are published in Science Advances. Researchers ...
Biotechnology
Jul 17, 2026
0
161
A Southwest Research Institute-led study has proposed a connection between a specific collision in the main asteroid belt and an inner-solar-system-wide bombardment episode that may have had measurable biological and geological ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 15, 2026
0
36
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has uncovered evidence that a 245-foot-thick (75-meter-thick) stack of ancient rock on the rim of Jezero Crater was built by repeated asteroid impacts. Referred to as the "Broom Point member" ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 15, 2026
0
28
