Posted on 08/03/2018 8:33:40 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Fiery chunks of rock are constantly bombarding the planetary bodies of our solar system, leaving behind long-lasting scars. These gouges, in the form of craters, can be used to learn about the history of our little nook in the vast universe, prompting scientists to study their features feverishly. Yet one pattern commonly found around craters has remained a puzzle. Sometimes, these craters contain radial rays of debris fanned out around the impact zone. In the lab, scientists have tried to reproduce these patterns by dropping balls into containers of sand or beads, yet have found little success.
But in a recent study published June 27 in the journal Physical Review Letters, a team of scientists has finally made some progress in understanding how crater rays form, and their inspiration comes from an unexpected source: high school students.
Tapan Sabuwala of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University was scouring the internet for videos by other researchers, hoping to find someone who was producing crater rays in sandbox experiments. Although none of the experts were achieving such a pattern, Sabuwala chanced across a video where high school students were producing the elegant rays.
“I was very excited to see evidence that ray-like patterns are actually produced in experiments that, at least at first sight, look very similar to the ones that we had been conducting,” says Sabuwala. “And, of course, this fact made it equally confusing as to why the rays are produced in the students’ experiments but not in our experiments.”
(Excerpt) Read more at astronomy.com ...
Now I can sleep at night.
Ping!...............
Rats. I thought they finally found Judge Crater.
Glad to see HS students interested in real SCIENCE................
I’m mostly flabbergasted that the “real” scientists were not able to figure this out. Any kid who has spent a fair bit of time working with sand, water, and gravel at the beach should be able to figure this out, unless they have undergone extensive “training” so as to forget the lessons of childhood.
My exact reaction to reading this article.
The first step in learning is to admit you know nothing..............
My thoughts exactly. Scientist should stick to things they are better at manipulating like AGW.
Good for these kids. ‘Hope they get some of the journal publication credit.
The moon is a hollow metal sphere. All large impacts only go to a uniform depth and are convex,
Can I have $150,000.00 a year to drop balls into pans of beads or sand? I’d like one of those nifty labcoats and free pizza and soda too.
Thanks Red Badger. Gene Shoemaker used to use a firearm, "my favorite rifle" as he called it, because his entire class would be able to experiment with the creation of miniature crater creation, and note for themselves that the bullet wasn't left in the crater, it just disintegrated. The National Geographic "Asteroids, Deadly Impact" has a demonstration of this, with one of his former students.
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From the lunarorigin keyword, out of the FRchives:
Up the speed which would still be marginal to a space object impact:
Fire a 150 gr 300 Win Mag into sandstone and study that.
Wear safety glasses.
Right. And if you shoot steel plates you will see the rats on the steel too. You have to have enough velocity to get the splash effect.
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