Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001mnras.327..126j&link_type=abstract
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 327, Issue 1, pp. 126-132.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
11
Comets: General, Earth, Minor Planets, Asteroids, Moon
Scientific paper
An Öpik-based geometric algorithm is used to compute impact probabilities and velocity distributions for various near-Earth object (NEO) populations. The resulting crater size distributions for the Earth and Moon are calculated by combining these distributions with assumed NEO size distributions and a selection of crater scaling laws. This crater probability distribution indicates that the largest craters on both the Earth and the Moon are dominated by comets. However, from a calculation of the fractional probabilities of iridium deposition, and the velocity distributions at impact of each NEO population, the only realistic possibilities for the Chicxulub impactor are a short-period comet (possibly inactive) or a near-Earth asteroid. For these classes of object, sufficiently large impacts have mean intervals of 100 and 300Myr respectively, slightly favouring the cometary hypothesis.
Asher David J.
Bailey Mark E.
Jeffers Sandra V.
Manley S. P.
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