Cratering Impacts into Finite Targets: Comparing Experiments, Code Simulations, and Scaling Laws
Abstract
Recent studies have indicated that cratering on small bodies in the solar system may be very different from craters formed on planar surfaces. The curvature of the cratering surface has been shown to affect final crater diameter. As collisional evolution work progresses, e.g., analyses of asteroids Gaspra, Ida, and Ida's moon Dactyl, as well as the Stickney crater on Phobos, reliable predictions for crater diameters formed by impacting projectiles are required. We compare Holsapple and Schmidt crater scaling laws (strength regime), derived primarily from impacts into semi-infinite targets, to results from high-velocity laboratory cratering experiments using spherical, strong cement mortar targets. We find that strength scaling underestimates crater size by about a factor of 2. We also use our 2D numerical code to model cratering impacts (under the same initial conditions) into both a sphere and the planar surface of a cylinder (axial symmetry). The crater diameter calculated by the code was larger for the curved-surface case (by 40%), in agreement with experimental results.
- Publication:
-
Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
- Pub Date:
- March 1996
- Bibcode:
- 1996LPI....27.1117R
- Keywords:
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- ASTEROIDS;
- CRATERS;
- IMPACTS;
- SCALING LAWS