Leibniz MMS Days 2017 - Abstract
Luther, Robert
Impact craters are one of the most abundant features on planetary surfaces, especially on atmosphere-less bodies. Also on Earth, more than 185 craters are known; and much more craters must have existed and have been eroded in time. The study of such cratering events is important for the study of the origin of the planets, constraining an impactor flux on the Earth in the past and today, and to assess the consequences of such impact events as e.g., material ejection or climatically consequences by outgazing or dust production. We use a multi-material, multi-rheology shock physics code to simulate such dynamic events including the cratering process and the ejection of material. Furthermore, we simulate the interaction of this ejected material with an atmosphere or with a gas phase of highly shocked material in the expanding vapour plume in a multi-phase approach. Ejected particles are accelerated/decelerated by the surrounding medium by Stoke’s drag and by high-velocity drag. At the same time, these particles transfer momentum on the surrounding medium. This process is sensitive to particle sizes and as such leads to a sorting of particles by size.