Impact Crater

space · geology · collisions · moon

Made by cosmic crashes. Impact craters form when asteroids, meteorites, or comets smash into the surface of planets and moons at incredibly high speeds. The energy from the collision creates a depression that's usually circular or bowl-shaped.

Raised rims around edges. Unlike volcanic craters that form from explosions inside a planet, impact craters have raised rims that stick up higher than the ground around them. This rim happens because the impact pushes material outward and upward.

Sizes range wildly. Impact craters can be tiny specks you'd need a microscope to see on moon rocks, or they can be enormous basins with multiple rings that are hundreds of miles across. Earth's Meteor Crater in Arizona is a famous example of a medium-sized impact crater.

Found everywhere in space. You can see impact craters on the moon, Mercury, Mars, and many other solid bodies in our solar system. The moon has thousands of them because it has no atmosphere or weather to erase them.

Shaped by the impact angle. Impact craters are usually circular, but they can be elliptical or irregular if the space rock hits at an angle or if landslides change the crater's shape after it forms.