Asteroid with curveball-like spin likely created 49,000-year-old Barringer Crater

New simulations have revealed that the distinctive shapes of impact craters on Earth, such as Arizona's Barringer Crater, may have been influenced by asteroids with curveball-like spin and loose bonding strengths.

Impact craters are scars on the surfaces of celestial bodies and they come in diverse shapes throughout the solar system. However, the craters on Jupiter's moon and those on our planet Earth are not similar as many have different shapes and sizes.

The study focused on Earth's craters and highlighted the variability in shapes, including Barringer Crater, which is around 49,000 years old. Meteor Crater, the other name for Barringer Crater located in Arizona, is about 37 miles (or 60 kilometres) east of Flagstaff city in the US state. It resembles a bowl embedded in the ground.

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According to a study published in the journal Physical Review E on November22, loosely bound clumpy asteroids, exhibiting curveball-like spins, could be responsible for creating some of Earth's uniquely shaped craters. The research suggested that craters formed by rapidly spinning asteroids tend to be wider and shallower compared to those formed by their slower-spinning counterparts.

While past research has identified factors like asteroid velocity as contributors to crater diversity, the new study zeroes in on two often overlooked parameters - the asteroid's spin and clumpiness.

Although it may be intuitive to think that a spinning asteroid would create a deeper crater, the study suggested that rapidly spinning "rubble-piles," composed of weakly-bound components like those found in asteroid Bennu, produce wide, shallow craters.

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Study to help understand howcraters are formed

The study is important in understanding how different types of craters are formed and how materials from the impactor spread after a collision. By studying the spin and clumpiness of asteroids, scientists are aiming to gain insights into these processes.

(With inputs from agencies)