Why Impact Craters?

Compiled by Charles A. Wood


Impact Craters are perhaps the most informative landform that a planetary scientist can study on moons and planets. 

The absence of impact craters means that the planetary surface must be young because impact cratering continues to occur everywhere in the solar system. Saturn's moon Titan has very few craters so already we know that there must be one or more processes that erase the earlier craters that surely formed.

The number of impact craters on a planetary surface provides information on the possible age of the surface, assuming that craters have formed throughout time, and that we have a good model for the rate of formation of craters near Saturn. And we do have guidelines, because Saturn's other moons are intensely cratered.

The distribution of diameters of craters can provide information on the scale of processes that have partially resurfaced the moon or planet.

The morphology of impact craters can tell us about erosional or modification processes that have reduced crater depths, buried exterior deposits, or eroded and breached rims.

This purpose of this website is to: 
(1) compile information about proposed Titan impact craters, including images of all of them, and 
(2) review published papers about the craters.

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