Estimates of crater size for large-body impact: Gravity-scaling results

Abstract

A scaling analysis based upon dimensional invariance is used in conjunction with centrifuge experiments to estimate cratering efficiency as a function of impact velocity for kilometer-sized impactors. Complementing earlier, conventional smallscale impact experiments, centrifuge experiments were performed to substantiate these scaling laws in a scaled-size regime of interest. This technique provided empirical scaling laws used to estimate crater size for large bodies impacting the earth. From these scaling laws a 10-km-diameter body impacting at 25 km/s would be expected to produce a 66-km-diameter crater and to inject approximately 12 times its mass into the atmosphere.