Table of Contents
- 1 How can we use impact craters to estimate the age of a planetary surface?
- 2 How do scientists use impact craters to judge the age of a planet or a moon?
- 3 What is a meteor and how can it create a crater?
- 4 Why do asteroids create craters?
- 5 How do scientist determine the age of our solar system quizlet?
- 6 How do scientists tell where meteorites originate?
- 7 How can we tell if a meteorite is lunar or Martian?
How can we use impact craters to estimate the age of a planetary surface?
Counting the Craters One way to estimate the age of a surface is by counting the number of impact craters. This technique works because the rate at which impacts have occurred in the solar system has been roughly constant for several billion years.
How do scientists use impact craters to judge the age of a planet or a moon?
of a projectile (like a meteor) on the surface or a planet or moon. The explosion of materials at the crater site creates bright streaks of material called rays. Lunar Geologists record the number and size of craters and the amount of erosion of craters to help determine their ages.
What is a meteor and how can it create a crater?
Impact Craters. Craters produced by the collision of a meteorite with the Earth (or another planet or moon) are called impact craters. The high-speed impact of a large meteorite compresses, or forces downward, a wide area of rock. The pressure pulverizes the rock.
How are craters formed NASA?
These craters formed when rocks or comets from space smashed into the surface of the Moon. The impact was so powerful that it pulverized the ground – creating what we call regolith – and sprayed it out to form those ejecta rays. You can make craters like those on the Moon using simple baking ingredients!
How do scientists determine the age of planets?
The examination and analysis of rocks on Earth’s surface, and of extraterrestrial rocks, have enabled scientists to determine the approximate age of the planet.
Why do asteroids create craters?
These solid pieces of debris that have broken off from asteroids or comets, called meteorites, often create impact craters on the surface of terrestrial planets and moons. It is the speed of these pieces of rock that determine the crater’s size.
How do scientist determine the age of our solar system quizlet?
1) How do scientists estimate how old the solar system is? C) They measure the abundances of radioactive elements in meteorites, and use their half-lives to calculate the age.
How do scientists tell where meteorites originate?
Scientists can tell where meteorites originate based on several lines of evidence. They can use photographic observations of meteorite falls to calculate orbits and project their paths back to the asteroid belt. They can also compare compositional properties of meteorites to the different classes of asteroids.
How does the size of a crater depend on the planet?
Such a high-speed impact produces a crater that is approximately 20 times larger in diameter than the impacting object. Smaller planets have less gravitational “pull” than large planets; impactors will strike at lower speeds. The greater the mass of the impactor, the greater the size of crater.
What is the only meteor that has ever hit the ground?
The only entry of a large meteoroid into Earth’s atmosphere in modern history with firsthand accounts was the Tunguska event of 1908. This meteor struck a remote part of Siberia in Russia, but didn’t quite make it to the ground. Instead, it exploded in the air a few miles up.
How can we tell if a meteorite is lunar or Martian?
Martian rocks can be traced to the Red Planet because they contain pockets of trapped gas that matches what satellites and rovers have found at Mars. Similarly, if the composition of a meteorite resembles rocks that astronauts brought back from the Moon during the Apollo mission, it is likely to be lunar, too.