Impact Cratering Across The Solar System

Impact Cratering Across the Solar System, Volume Three in the Comparative Planetology series, provides an up-to-date, accessible, and comprehensive discussion of the impact landforms and processes that shape and drive the evolution of planets, moons, and smaller bodies. This book is a necessary resource for sourcing reliable, thorough, and accessible information on how impact cratering manifests throughout the Solar System; these difficulties are especially compounded by the rate at which new mission data have become available, and the diversity of new discoveries, over the past 5-10 years. The book offers information on pressing topics in this field such as how an impact event may be responsible for the major crustal dichotomy on Mars, how impact melting may have created the oldest known rocks on Earth, or how impact craters can be used to date planetary surfaces throughout the Solar System. This volume places a singular emphasis on comparing impact cratering processes on all relevant Solar System bodies, and with the explicit objective of providing a systems-level understanding of this widespread phenomenon, this book is ideal for students, academics, and researchers in the fields of planetary science, geology and astronomy, and those who study planetary impacts such as geophysicists, seismologists, and structural geologists. Includes an introduction that places the book in the context of the larger Comparative Planetology series Compares impact cratering processes on all relevant Solar System bodies, providing a systems-level understanding of this widespread phenomenon that shapes and drives the evolution of planets, moons and smaller bodies Offers additional online content, including figures, animations, videos and interviews with contributing authors

Planetary surfaces throughout the Solar System, and the current interest in impacts on the Earth, attest to the importance of impact cratering as a geological process. Impact craters have been identified on all but one of the planetary surfaces we have explored. The authors document the wide variety of crater types that have been observed on the planetary surfaces explored to date, approaching the subject in the context of comparative planetology. Each chapter focusses on a specific crater morphology and discusses what the craters tell us about the surfaces of bodies on which they are found. This approach illustrates not only impact craters themselves, but also emphasizes similarities and differences in crater morphology throughout the Solar System and the implications thereof.

Planetary Volcanism across the Solar System compares and contrasts the vast array of planetary bodies in the Solar System, including Earth. The wealth of spacecraft data for almost all major solid-surface bodies in the Solar System indicate that volcanism has been a dominant mechanism in shaping the landscapes of these bodies. The book addresses key questions surrounding our understanding of planetary volcanism, such as how to integrate the data into a coherent view of how volcanic activity arises, how this mechanism shapes planets, which volcanic landforms are ubiquitous throughout the Solar System, and which are unique. By placing a singular emphasis on comparing volcanic processes and landforms on all relevant Solar System bodies, and with the explicit objective of providing a systems-level understanding of this widespread phenomenon, users will find an up-to-date, accessible and comprehensive discussion of the major volcanic processes and landforms that shape and drive the evolution of planets, moons and smaller bodies. Includes an introduction placing the book in the context of the larger Comparative Planetology series Compares volcanic processes and landforms on all relevant Solar System bodies, providing a systems-level understanding of this widespread phenomenon Offers a thorough examination of the major volcanic processes and landforms that shape and drive the evolution of planets, moons and smaller bodies Includes information from new mission data and discoveries in recent years Features over 100 color illustrations and charts to more clearly convey concepts Offers additional online content, including figures, animations, video, and other multimedia content such as interviews with contributing authors

The exploration of our Solar System is rapidly growing in importance as a scientific discipline. During the last decades, great progress has been achieved as the result of space missions to planets and small bodies - as teroids and comets - and improved remote-sensing methods, as well as due to refined techniques of laboratory measurements and a rapid progress in theoretical studies, involving the development of various astrophysical and geophysical models. These models are based, in particular, on the approach of comparative planetology becoming a powerful tool in revealing evolu tionary processes which have been shaping the planets since their origin. Comets and asteroids, being identified as remnants of planetary formation, serve as a clue to the reconstruction of Solar System history because they encapsulated the primordial material from which the planets were built up. At the same time, these interplanetary carriers of original matter and mes sengers from the past, being triggered by dynamical processes well outside our neighboring space, were responsible for numerous catastrophic events when impacting on the planets and thus causing dramatic changes of their natural conditions. In the crossroads of astronomy and geophysics, recent years have seen a growing understanding of the importance of collisional processes through out the history of the Solar System and, therefore, the necessity to get more insight into the problem of interactions of planets and small bodies.

The genesis of modern searches for observable meteoritic phenomena on the Moon is the paper by Lincoln La Paz in Popular Astronomy magazine in 1938. In it he argued that the absence of observed fashes of meteoritic impacts on the Moon might be interpreted to mean that these bodies are destroyed as luminous meteors in an extremely rarefed lunar atmosphere. The paper suggested the possibility of systematic searches for such possible lunar meteors. With these concepts in mind, I was surprised to note a transient moving bright speck on the Moon on July 10, 1941. It appeared to behave very much as a lunar meteor would – except that the poorly estimated duration would lead to a strongly hyperbolic heliocentric velocity. Thus, the idea of systematic searches for both p- sible lunar meteors and meteoritic impact fashes was born. It was appreciated that much time might need to be expended to achieve any positive results. Systematic searches were carried out by others and myself chiefy in the years 1945–1965 and became a regular program at the newly founded Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, or ALPO.

Beyond Earth’s small, red neighbor Mars lie the gaseous, giant planets of the Outer Solar System. This book investigates these behemoths and dwarf planet Pluto, as well as other curiosities within the solar system’s farthest reaches, such as asteroid fields and the Kuiper belt.

Have you ever dreamt of being an astronaut, travelling through the universe on your very own space mission? What would it be like to tour the Solar System, visiting the Sun and the planets, taking in everything from moons to asteroid belts along the way? What would you see, and how would you feel? What would you eat? How would you navigate and produce fuel? How would you survive? On this epic voyage of discovery, astronomer Mark Thompson takes you on that journey. From how to prepare for take-off and the experience of leaving Earth’s atmosphere, to the reality of living in the confines of a spaceship and the strange sensation of weightlessness, this is an adventure like no other. Suit up, strap in and enjoy the ride.

Craters have been found on planets and moons throughout the solar system, caused when asteroids or meteors have collided with them. Our Earth has not escaped these impacts, and nearly 200 craters are known on Earth today. Some are easily visited, others are in locations few would ever want to get near. This book details all the known terrestrial impact craters, telling their age, size, and other details, as well as highlighting those easily visited. One has an annual “Craterfest” to attract tourists, while it is possible to swim in lakes that have filled others.