Impacts into Coarse-Grained Spheres at Moderate Impact Velocities: Implications for Cratering on Asteroids and Planets

Abstract: The surfaces of many planets and asteroids contain coarsely fragmental material generated by impacts or other geologic processes. The presence of such pre-existing structures may affect subsequent impacts, particularly when the width of the shock is comparable to or smaller than the size of pre-existing structures. Reasonable theoretical predictions and low speed (<300m/s) impact experiments suggest that in such targets the cratering process should be highly dissipative, which would reduce cr...