Why craters on moon

Credit: NASA. When you throw a rock, it gains kinetic energy which means the energy that an object has because it is in motion. When the rock hits the flat, powdery surface, its kinetic energy is transferred to the powder and creates an impact crater. Try different heights e. The craters should change their shape depending on the speed, size and angle of the incoming meteorite. Higher-energy impacts make bigger craters, with debris shooting out from their centres as " rays.

Share Flipboard Email. Table of Contents Expand. How Did Moon Craters Form? Impact Craters: Created by Space Debris. Impact Cratering on Earth and Other Worlds. Carolyn Collins Petersen. Astronomy Expert. Carolyn Collins Petersen is an astronomy expert and the author of seven books on space science. She previously worked on a Hubble Space Telescope instrument team.

Facebook Facebook. Updated January 04, Did You Know? Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Petersen, Carolyn Collins. How Were They Formed? What Are Moon Craters? What's Really on the Far Side of the Moon. Apollo 14 Mission: Return to the Moon after Apollo Journey through the Solar System: Planet Venus. Geologic Maps of the 50 United States.

Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for ThoughtCo. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. One reason the moon has craters because it gets hit by objects, small pieces of rocks that come from outer space. These are pieces of asteroids, comets that are flying around in the solar system.

The moon has no atmosphere, and so even a tiny rock will create a crater. Typically when you see an impact crater, the size of the crater is much larger than the size of the the rock that created it. The rock is usually at least three to five times smaller, depending on the amount of energy generated. In fact, you can detect recent craters now that scientists have such wonderful high-resolution pictures of the moon.