Ray Systems and Craters Generated by the Impact of Nonspherical Projectiles

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 122; no. 16; p. 164501
• Main Author: Pacheco-Vázquez, F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 26.04.2019
• ISSN: 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.164501

The impact of a spherical projectile on an evened-out granular bed generates a uniform ejecta of material and a crater with a raised circular rim. Recently, Sabuwala et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 264501 (2018)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.120.264501] found that the uniform blanket of ejecta changes to a set of radial streaks when a spherical body impacts on an undulated granular surface, being a plausible explanation to the enigmatic ray systems on planetary bodies. Here, we show that ray systems can also be generated by the impact of nonspherical projectiles on a flat granular surface. This is a reasonable explanation considering that meteorites are rarely spherical. Moreover, by impacting bodies of different geometries, we show that the crater size follows the same power-law scaling with the impact energy found for spherical projectiles, and the crater rim becomes circular as the impact energy is increased regardless of the projectile shape, which helps to understand why most impact craters in nature are rounded.