Craters on the moon

polevaulter1976 · Post by **polevaulter1976** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 8:47 pm

Can anyone tell me the size of the meteor that caused the Tycho crater on the moon and what would be the result if one of similar size struck the earth in a populated area?

Fred the Cat · Post by **Fred the Cat** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 3:21 pm

polevaulter1976 wrote:Can anyone tell me the size of the meteor that caused the Tycho crater on the moon and what would be the result if one of similar size struck the earth in a populated area?

Wiki speaks to that event briefly but I suspect there is much more discussion regarding Tycho on old LPOD's and their references to lunar topography.

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 3:37 pm

polevaulter1976 wrote:Can anyone tell me the size of the meteor that caused the Tycho crater on the moon and what would be the result if one of similar size struck the earth in a populated area?

Probably of similar size to the Chicxulub impactor that finished off the dinosaurs (7-10 km). So we already have a pretty good idea of the effect of such an impact on Earth (and it wouldn't really make any difference if it centered on a populated area or not).

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 5:38 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:
polevaulter1976 wrote:
Can anyone tell me the size of the meteor that caused the Tycho crater on the moon and what would be the result if one of similar size struck the earth in a populated area?
Probably of similar size to the Chicxulub impactor that finished off the dinosaurs (7-10 km).

The Chicxulub crater is 180km wide vs. the Tycho crater's 86km diameter; so, even taking into account the fact that the Earth's gravity enhanced the speed of the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–T) impactor it was still probably about twice the size of the Tycho impactor.

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 5:44 pm

neufer wrote:
Chris Peterson wrote:
polevaulter1976 wrote:
Can anyone tell me the size of the meteor that caused the Tycho crater on the moon and what would be the result if one of similar size struck the earth in a populated area?
Probably of similar size to the Chicxulub impactor that finished off the dinosaurs (7-10 km).
The Chicxulub crater is 180km wide vs. the Tycho crater's 86km diameter; so, even taking into account the fact that the Earth's gravity enhanced the speed of the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–T) impactor it was still probably about twice the size of the Tycho impactor.

Hard to say without actually knowing the impact speed. But given the Moon's much lower escape velocity, the impact energy could easily be an order of magnitude lower on the Moon than it would on the Earth. Most analyses I've seen still place the Tycho impactor on the order of 10 km.

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 5:44 pm

I just hope you guys aren't doing someone's homework assignment.

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 5:54 pm

geckzilla wrote:
I just hope you guys aren't doing someone's homework assignment.

I just hope he doesn't fail for listening to us.

Fred the Cat · Post by **Fred the Cat** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 7:30 pm

neufer wrote:
geckzilla wrote:
I just hope you guys aren't doing someone's homework assignment.
I just hope he doesn't fail for listening to us.

What? You can still fail?

polevaulter1976 · Post by **polevaulter1976** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 12:03 pm

Referring to Polevulter1976, note the year......1976. He is 58. Thanks for the answers.

Starship Asterisk*

Craters on the moon

Craters on the moon

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