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Impact Craters

Impact Craters. Leave an Impression…. Andy Saulietis. Craters are everywhere!. LPL / UA . The Moon. Apollo 17 . NASA . Mercury. Asteroids. NASA. NASA/GSFC. Mars. NASA . NASA . Even Earth…. Geoffrey Notkin. USGS. Meteor Crater, AZ.

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Impact Craters

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  1. Impact Craters Leave an Impression…

  2. Andy Saulietis Craters are everywhere! LPL / UA The Moon Apollo 17 NASA

  3. Mercury Asteroids NASA NASA/GSFC

  4. Mars NASA NASA

  5. Even Earth… Geoffrey Notkin USGS Meteor Crater, AZ

  6. Left over building blocks of the solar system (~5 billion years old) • Vary in size, from a few feet to a few miles • Millions of potential meteors in our solar system alone • Travel in excess of 20,000 mph NASA Asteroids and Comets! So what causes craters?

  7. When these objects collide with another body, like the Earth, the result is a crater. • Size: 150 Feet Across1 • Composition: Nickel-Iron1 • Speed: 28,600 MPH1 • Age: 50,000 years old1 • Energy: 2.5 Megatons1 Wright, S.P Meteor Crater, AZ 1Barringer Meteor Crater Site http://www.barringercrater.com/

  8. NASA/GSFC Shoemaker-Levy 9

  9. Atmosphere • Oceans • Plate Tectonics • Location NASA/GSFC Why do some planets have more craters than others?

  10. NASA/GSFC Extinction So why do we care?

  11. Extinction • Estimated that there have been at least 5 mass-extinctions in Earth’s history1 • Up to 90% of all species killed off2 • At least one is believed to have been caused by a meteorite1 • 65 Million Years ago, Yucatan Penninsula2 • >100 Miles across2 • Force Greater than 1,000,000 megatons3 1 Lee Siegel, space.com 2 NASA/GSFC 3 Arnett, Bill, UA

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