water ice surface tagged posts

Cosmic flypaper Experiments using a high velocity cannon suggest that when asteroids hit targets that are icy or made of porous silicate materials, much of the impact material stays in the crater. The findings have implications for the surface composition of the dwarf planet Ceres. Image: NASA Ames Research Center

A new set of high-velocity impact experiments suggests projectiles that slamming into Ceres tend to stick. The experiments using Vertical Gun Range at NASA’s Ames Research Center, suggest that when asteroids and other impactors hit Ceres, much of the impact material remains on the surface instead of bouncing off into space. The findings suggest Ceres surface could be mainly a mish-mash of meteoritic material collected over billions of years of bombardment.

Ceres is the largest ob...