One of those things impacts do
When a large meteor slams into a planet or a moon, many things happen. The rocks that are impacted are pulverized, sometimes there is enough energy to melt the rocks, the mantle of the planet can begin flowing in responseâŚand vast amounts of material are removed.
We recognize the end results of the removal of material from an impact as the classic âcraterâ seen any time you look at a body like the moon. Excavation of the rocks that are at the impact site is probably the effect of impacts that weâre most familiar with. The planets of this solar system are just covered with craters; places where impacts excavated material.
So, if the main thing that happens during an impact is that âmaterial is thrown outâ, it has to land somewhere, doesnât it?
Well, hereâs an example of what happens to the rocks that are excavated. Theyâre lifted and thrown out of the crater along raypaths. The debris tossed out of the crater falls along lines moving away from the impact site, spreading out and thinning out with distance away from the source.
This image is from LROC, the high-resolution Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (on the Luanr Reconnaissance Orbiter, LRO). You see a series of rays from a fresh crater formed to the bottom left of this image. The image itself is 1080 meters wide, and is from the northern part of the moon, 77° north latitude. Because this image is close to the pole, the source of sunlight comes from the bottom in this image, which is why the lower-right is the brightest section.
Some previous topography, including craters and hills, are preserved beneath the pattern of the ejecta, and there are small craters superimposed on the linear stripes that have fallen since the larger crater formed.
-JBB
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/700