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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️ DID YOU KNOW ☄️ that Meteor Crater in Arizona is one of the best-preserved impact craters on Earth? During the 1960s and 1970s, NASA astronauts trained in the crater to prepare for the Apollo missions to the Moon, and ongoing field training for astronauts continues to this day.

Meteor Crater, Arizona in plan view. The crater is ~1 km across and slightly polygonal. Layers of exposed limestone and sandstone are visible just beneath the crater rim, as are large stone blocks excavated by the impact. From NASA Earth Observatory

Eugene Shoemaker training astronauts at Meteor Crater, Arizona, in the 1960s.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️DID YOU KNOW☄️ that Saturn's moon Mimas looks like the Death Star? The iconic crater that gives it this appearance is Herschel, and its sharp central peak and steep walls may tell us about the age of a potential ocean deep beneath the surface!

Image of a moon that looks like the death star but is a real moon. Surface covered in many craters with a large prominent crater (Herschel crater) on the right with a large central peak.

Close up image Herschel crater highlighting large central peak.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️ DID YOU KNOW ☄️ that the Moon has a new crater? Named after lunar scientist Tom McGetchin, this 222-m-diameter crater formed sometimes between April 11 and May 22, 2024, and is an incredibly informative tool to understand the local and regional lunar geologic history.

Figure 1 from the Science paper. The ew impact site, before and after.
(A) NAC image acquired before the impact event, showing undisturbed lunar surface. (B) NAC image acquired after the impact, showing a crater with a bright ejecta blanket.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️ DID YOU KNOW ☄️ The South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin is one of the largest (~2,500 km) and oldest (4.3 billion yrs) impact basins in the solar system? SPA is important because this basin and its ejecta can help us better understand the early solar system and its violent history.

Topographic map of the South Pole–Aitken basin based on Kaguya data. Red represents high elevation, purple represents low elevation. The purple and grey elliptical rings trace the inner and outer walls of the basin. (The black ring is an old artifact of the image.)

The Moon's largest impact feature, the South Pole–Aitken basin, is so named because it stretches between Aitken crater and the south pole.
NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️DID YOU KNOW☄️ that the largest craters sometimes form multi-ring basins? These unusual impact structures form on both rocky and icy bodies, and are though to originate from variations in subsurface structure. Callisto's basin Valhalla is ~1000 km across!

Image of a large multi ring basin on Callisto as seen by Voyager 1

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️DID YOU KNOW☄️ recent impacts on Mars have excavated and exposed subsurface ice? These impacts can help scientists better understand the climate on Mars and can be used to improve maps of subsurface ice to be used a potential resource for human exploration.

Impact of a crater on mars. Background is reddish brown and a small crater in the center contains bright white deposits, showing ice.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️ DID YOU KNOW ☄️ Germany is home to Ries crater, a 24 km-wide crater that formed ~15 million years ago? Ries crater is one of the most well preserved craters on Earth, with the crater floor and portions of the ejecta blanket still visible for scientists to study!

Topographic data of Ries crater, which shows the depression relative to the surrounding terrain.

Satellite image of the Nördlinger Ries (large circular structure on the right) and the smaller impact crater, Steinheim Basin (lower left)

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️ DID YOU KNOW ☄️ some craters, called polygonal craters, form with straight sides and edges, as opposed to being circular or elliptical? The presence of polygonal craters indicates preexisting fractures or tectonics, providing geologists with insight into the subsurface!

Two lunar craters that are polygonal, with the front crater looking vaguely hexagonal.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️DID YOU KNOW☄️ Venus lacks craters <~2km, due to its extremely dense atmosphere? Large craters that do form exhibit ejecta with sinuous flows, similar to lava flows, because surface rocks are easily melted by the high pressures and temperatures reached during the impact.

Magellan radar image of Balch Crater, Venus, originally designated Somerville Crater. This crater is one of the few examples of tectonically modified craters seen on Venus. The absence of such craters indicates a possible cessation of tectonic deformation on Venus at some point in history. Balch is located at 30° N, 283° W in Devana Chasma, Central Beta Regio. The crater was originally 37 kilometres in diameter. North is up.

$This 30-kilometer (18.6-mile) diameter crater, named Adivar crater for the Turkish educator and author Halide Adivar (1883-1964), is located just north of the western Aphrodite highland (9 degrees north latitude, 76 degrees east longitude). Surrounding the crater rim is ejected material which appears bright in the radar image due to the presence of rough fractured rock. A much broader area has also been affected by the impact, particularly to the west of the crater. Radar-bright materials, including a jet-like streak just west of the crater, extend for over 500 kilometers (310 miles) across the surrounding plains. A darker streak, in a horseshoe or paraboloidal shape, surrounds the bright area. Radar-dark (i.e., smooth) paraboloidal streaks were observed around craters in earlier Magellan images, but this is a rare bright crater streak. These unusual streaks, seen only on Venus, are believed to result from the interaction of crater materials (the meteoroid, ejecta, or both) and high-speed winds in the upper atmosphere. The precise mechanism that produces the streaks is poorly understood, but it is clear that the dense atmosphere of Venus plays an important role in the cratering process.$

Crater Isabella, with a diameter of 175 kilometers (108 miles), seen in this Magellan radar image, is the second largest impact crater on Venus. The feature is named in honor of the 15th Century queen of Spain, Isabella of Castile. Located at 30 degrees south latitude, 204 degrees east longitude, the crater has two extensive flow-like structures extending to the south and to the southeast. The end of the southern flow partially surrounds a pre-existing 40 kilometer (25 mile) circular volcanic shield. The southeastern flow shows a complex pattern of channels and flow lobes, and is overlain at its southeastern tip by deposits from a later 20 kilometer (12 mile) diameter impact crater, Cohn (for Carola Cohn, Australian artist, 1892-1964). The extensive flows, unique to Venusian impact craters, are a continuing subject of study for a number of planetary scientists. It is thought that the flows may consist of 'impact melt,' rock melted by the intense heat released in the impact explosion. An alternate hypothesis invokes 'debris flows,' which may consist of clouds of hot gases and both melted and solid rock fragments that race across the landscape during the impact event. That type of emplacement process is similar to that which occurs in violent eruptions on Earth, such as the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines.

Magellan radar image of Wheatley crater on Venus. This 72 km diameter crater shows a radar bright ejecta pattern and a generally flat floor with some rough raised areas and faulting. The crater is located in Asteria Regio at 16.6N,267E.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️DID YOU KNOW☄️ about peak-ring basins? These craters typically form at sizes larger than complex craters, and have an interior ring of peaks surrounding the crater's center (hence the name). They can be found on Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Earth, and Mars!

Raditladi, a relatively young peak-ring crater on Mercury. Raditladi, first imaged during MESSENGER's first Mercury flyby and named in April 2008, continues to be an intriguing region of study, with its well-preserved features, relatively young age, exterior impact melt ponds, hollows-covered peak ring, and concentric troughs on its floor.

Barton, a peak-ring crater on Venus. Image via Magellan.

Schrödinger, a peak-ring basin on the Moon. Mosaic of photos by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The peak-ring basin Lowell, exhibiting frost deposits on its floor. Taken by the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC).

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Crater Fact Friday☄️DID YOU KNOW☄️Researchers recently discovered a 390 million year old, 25km wide crater, named Uhackatik, in Quebec's Côte-Nord region? Uhackatik was originally found via GoogleMaps, and researchers identified impact melt rocks and shock features in the region, confirming its origin

A google maps image of a region in Quebec Canada. Seen in the center of the image is a large circular depression, which is the newly identified Uhackatik crater.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️DID YOU KNOW☄️ Layered ejecta craters are hypothesized to form in the presence of subsurface ice, where volatiles are fluidized upon impact. This means these craters can be used as a way to identify subsurface volatiles and resources on other planets!

A beautiful layered ejecta crater on Mars with two distinct layers.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Today is day one of the Planetary Crater Consortium's annual meeting! We're very excited to welcome researchers at all stages of their careers, from undergraduates to emeritus professors, to the USGS Science Campus in Flagstaff for 2.5 days of crater discussions ☄️

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Recent observations from a June 20 flyby for the Hayabusa 2 extended mission imaged a binary asteroid, named 98943 Torifune. This type of object is s likely culprit for a doublet crater!

Image of a binary asteroid, covered in rubble.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️DID YOU KNOW☄️ Doublet craters form when two objects (such as a binary asteroid) impact a surface simultaneously? We use the frequency and size of observed doublets to estimate the population of binary asteroids, which is important for planetary defense!

Image of a doublet crater from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC). Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems. Image shows two side by side craters with a straight rim separation and butterfly ejecta.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️DID YOU KNOW☄️ that craters are so circular because the impacts happen at such high speeds that they behave like point-source explosions? This is why the Sedan crater, formed by a nuclear explosion at the Nevada test site, looks so similar to regular impact craters! Happy 4th 🇺🇸

Meteor Crater, Arizona as seen from above. This image has a resolution of 2 meters per pixel, and illumination is from the right. Layers of exposed kaibab limestone and moenkopi and toroweap sandstone are visible just beneath the crater rim, as well as in the surrounding ejecta blanket, which has large blocks excavated by the impact. The visitor center and associated parking lot are on the north end of the crater. This image was taken by the NASA Earth Observatory

Crater from the July 1962 "Sedan" nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site (also called the Nevada National Security Site) as part of Operation Plowshare. The 104 kiloton blast displaced 12 million tons of earth and created a crater 320 feet deep and 1,280 feet wide. (Look to the size of the roads in the bottom-right of the picture, and the observation deck at the lower-right edge of the crater, for a sense of scale). The roads are very small relative to the crater.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

The age of the impact indicates that it occurred during a global ice age, called Snowball Earth. Much of the Earth including Australia, was covered with thick ice sheets!

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️ The Yarrabubba impact structure in Western Australia is one of Earth's oldest preserved craters (2.2 Gya!). It is likely the impact struck an ice sheet, releasing water vapor into the atmosphere. This could have contributed to rapid climate change and the end of Snowball Earth!

Google earth image showing an outline of the Yarrrabubba impact structure and a map of Australia indicating the location of the impact structure in Western Australia.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

One more day to submit your abstract for this year's Planetary Crater Consortium meeting in Flagstaff, AZ! Meeting is July 15-17, abstracts are due June 17 (tomorrow). Submit here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Hey you! Do you like impacts craters? Well, great news. Just over a month left to submit an abstract to our annual meeting! Come chat about all things craters! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

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Reposted by Planetary Crater Consortium

Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Upcoming PCC Meeting July 15-17 at the USGS-Flagstaff! Abstract Submission (deadline June 17): forms.gle/APaNS8G7ycJx... Registration: forms.gle/RpGWUMaK6qdk... We welcome submission for all things craters Observational work, planetary remote sensing, modeling, field work, lab experiments, etc.!

forms.gle

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

forms.gle

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Did you know impact craters can provide us a window into the subsurface? Occator Crater on Ceres contains bright material, remnants of a salty brine, that migrated from the deep subsurface reservoir to the surface. The size and energy of the Occator impact provided a pathway for this migration!

Image of an impact crater on Ceres with several bright spots in the interior of the crater.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

But it’s the most ubiquitous joke in all of planetary science!

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

CRATERS Images from Landsat science.nasa.gov/mission/land...

Images of land features that are in the shape of the letters C R A T E R S

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Happy Earth Day! The Earth has hundreds of confirmed impact craters, which provide a key reference point for impact cratering research. Field and laboratory studies of terrestrial impact craters are a key part of how we learn about craters, including how they form and decay through time.

Meteor Crater from the southeast; the uplift around the rim can be seen. USGS/D. Roddy.

Popigai impact structure in northern Siberia, Russia.

Satellite image of South Africa's Vredefort Crater.

The Sudbury impact crater is the large, elliptical structure in this image (60 x 30 km).

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Better-characterizing the formation of large impact basins like Orientale can provide unprecedented insight into conditions on the early Moon - and that includes new images of the basin from Artemis II! There's still lots to learn about why multi-ring basins form.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

The intense deformation during and after the impact extended to the subsurface, leaving Orientale with a unique "bulls-eye" pattern of gravity anomalies, corresponding to excess mass (red) and mass deficits (blue).

This 3D rendering of Orientale shows the terrain in high relief, as it would be just after sunrise. Gravity anomalies measured by the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission are depicted in different colors on the right side of the image. Red indicates areas of higher gravity, or excess mass, and blue indicates lower gravity or areas of mass deficits. The GRAIL data reveals the structure of the basin beneath the surface. The red in the center of the basin, for example, shows that the crust is particularly thin there, and that denser mantle material is closer to the surface.
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

None of Orientale's rings are the initial crater itself, which would fall somewhere between the two innermost rings. The initial transient crater formed by the impact would have been obliterated by subsequent deformation, which would have included extensive rebounding of material inside the crater.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Orientale, the multi-ring impact basin that's a focus of Artemis II, is unique as the youngest of the Moon's large impact basins! Orientale's multiple rings are thought to have formed from deformation of the lunar crust and upper mantle in response to impact, generating circumferential ring faults.

The Orientale basin is the youngest of the large lunar basins. The distinct outer ring is about 590 miles (950 km) from east-to-west.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Crater Fact Friday: there's lots of unusual types of craters across the Solar System! One of our favorite types is pedestal craters, which have ejecta blankets that sit above the surrounding terrain, forming a raised platform (like a pedestal). Many of these can be found on Mars.

Pedestal crater on Mars, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program. Top layer has protected the lower material from being eroded. The location is Casius quadrangle.

Another pedestal crater on Mars, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program Location is Hellas quadrangle.

Pedestal crater on Mars, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program The ejecta is not symmetrical around crater because the asteroid came at a low angle out of the northeast, so there is an exclusion zone of no ejecta in that quadrant. The location is Casius quadrangle.

Pedestal crater on Mars, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program Scallops are forming at the bottom edge of the pedestal. Location is Casius quadrangle.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Permanently-shadowed craters can reach temperatures of -248 deg C, and the cumulative area of these craters is ~31 thousand km^2, which is more than half of the southern hemisphere!

Map of the overall resource potential of frozen materials in lunar PSRs. North (left) and south (right) pole PSR volatile ranking thematic maps overlaying Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment annual maximum bolometric temperature.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

The Artemis Base Camp concept is located near Shackleton and de Gerlache craters, two permanently-shadowed craters that future Artemis crews might be able to use for resources. The ice hidden in the Moon's eternal darkness can be used for drinkable water, breathable oxygen, and rocket fuel!

English: Shackleton Crater in the Lunar South Pole region, mosaic created by LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) and ShadowCam teams.

Shackleton, Shoemaker, and de Gerlache crater as imaged by Earth-based radar.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

One of the major focuses of future Artemis missions is landing on the lunar south pole near permanently shadowed craters. These types of craters are unique, as their locations near the poles of the Moon mean that - as the name implies - some portion of their interior is always in darkness.

Erlanger is a very deep lunar impact crater that lies near the north pole of the Moon. Image taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Camera.

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Whose excited for the Artemis II launch?! 🚀

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