Ghost crater
In astronomy, an old impact crater is referred to as a ghost crater , the crater wall of which has been almost completely eroded by long-term erosion and is only visible when the sun is very flat (see pictures).
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/AS15-M-1837.jpg/220px-AS15-M-1837.jpg)
The 30 km crater Lambert, photographed from Apollo 15 orbit . Below Lambert a ghost crater with a completely flat bottom, in the upper left part of a dorsal circle .
Even more recent impacts can lead to the overprinting of the old structures, which, however, can often be detected with special methods due to their rock-typical, spectral properties. The planetologist Eugene Shoemaker therefore also calls them palimpsests - analogous to the overwritten parchments in archeology.
Web links
- Ghost crater on Mars Article in the Frankfurter Rundschau from October 26, 2009.
literature
- J. Kelly Beatty, Brian O'Leary, Andrew Chaikin: The Sun and Its Planets. Space research in a new dimension (“The new solar system”). New edition Physik-Verlag, Weinheim 1985, ISBN 3-87664-056-3 .
- Antonín Rükl : Moon, Mars, Venus. Pocket atlas of the closest celestial bodies . Dausien Verlag, Hanau 1977, ISBN 3-7684-2795-1 .