Laboratory Impacts (IMAGE)

Brown University

Laboratory Impacts

Caption

Drawing on impact experiments using the NASA Vertical Gun Range, researchers have been able to estimate the size of the asteroid that created the moon's Imbrium Basin. Images from laboratory impacts capture the crumbling impactor in flight following a high-speed impact into a cylinder using the Ames Vertical Gun Range. On the moon, bits of the crumbling impactor made grooves across the moon's surface. The trajectories of the grooves were used to estimate the size of the impactor.

Credit

Schultz Lab/Brown University

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