why are all craters on the moon round? You would think that most would look elongated or elliptical depending on the angle of impact.

Question

why are all craters on the moon round? You would think that most would look elongated or elliptical depending on the angle of impact.

In: 498

Answer 1

An impact crater doesn’t work like someone throwing a rock into the sand with the crater being the result of that rock shoving the sand away.

Meteors come in at speeds of several km per second. When it suddenly stops because it hits the ground all that kinetic energy is converted into heat and spreads outwards in a massive explosion that expands in a circle. In a way they’re more like bomb craters than “throw a rock into the sand” crater.

You very very rarely get elliptical craters if the meteor comes in at an extremely shallow angle of less than 5 degrees.