impact
(collision of one solid body with another)
In astronomy, impact generally refers to the collision of two
solid bodies, possibly both of significant size, or possibly one
much smaller than the other. Craters are evidence of impacts.
Impacts are assumed in theories of planet formation, both to
explain how planets grew, assuming one of the bodies gained the
material from the other, and how bodies came to have their constituents,
assuming impacts removed the outer surface removed by one or more
impacts (impact erosion), which can leave the body denser if the
densest material had already fallen toward the center of the body.
It is assumed both scenarios occur, depending upon the velocity
of the impact(s).
The favored theory of the Moon's formation is that it results from
a giant impact, the impact of a Mars-sized planet with
Earth (known as the giant-impact hypothesis).
(planets)
Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant-impact_hypothesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formation_and_evolution_of_the_Solar_System
https://mobile.arc.nasa.gov/public/iexplore/missions/pages/yss/june.html
Referenced by pages:
atmosphere formation
atmospheric escape
101955 Bennu
chondrite
CIG
circumplanetary disk
collisional erosion
complex crater
debris disk
Europa
globular cluster (GC)
GW170817
GW detection (GW)
iSALE
isolation mass
LCROSS
late heavy bombardment (LHB)
magma ocean
mass extinction
maximum iron fraction
metallicity (Z)
meteoroid
minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID)
moon
Moon formation
near-Earth object (NEO)
oligarch
pebble accretion
planet formation
Rosetta
siderophile
smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH)
stellar encounter
strewn field
Tillotson equation
weathering
Index