LPI Releases New Impact Cratering Education Site
June 16, 2014
These images show the 2.2-kilometer lunar simple crater Linné. Left: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera image (NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University); center: color-coded shaded relief map (NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University); right: Apollo 15 image (AS15-9348).
The LPI-JSC Center for Lunar Science and Exploration has prepared a new set of products to help faculty teach the subject of impact cratering. In the spirit of LPI’s traditional slide sets and image gallery that are used at universities across the country, a new series of video simulations of impact cratering processes has been developed for similar classroom use.
“Video Simulations of Impact Cratering Processes” explore how impactor size and velocity, as well as target gravity and temperature, affect the sizes and morphologies of impact craters. The videos can be run in real time from the website or, if users prefer, downloaded to their own computers.
Comparisons between the craters produced in the simulations and actual craters on the Moon (e.g., Linné, Armstrong, St. George, Schwarzschild, Schrödinger, Orientale, South Pole-Aitken basin) and Earth (e.g., Chicxulub, Flynn Creek, Steinheim) are provided, with links to additional data associated with those structures.
For more information, visit
Video Simulations of Impact Cratering Processes
LPI-JSC Center for Lunar Science and Exploration
Last updated June 16, 2014
