Physics of Soft Impact and Cratering

This book focuses on the impact dynamics and cratering of soft matter to describe its importance, difficulty and wide applicability to geology-related problems. Particular coverage is given to the impact of granular matter, which is the most crucial constituent for geophysics. While granular matter shows both solid-like and fluid-like behaviors, neither solid nor fluid dynamics are sufficient to fully understand the physics of granular matter. In order to reveal its fundamental properties, extensive impact tests have been recently carried. The author reveals the findings of these recent studies as well as what remains unsolved in terms of impact dynamics. The impact crater morphology with various soft matter impacts also is discussed intensively.

Various experimental results up to the recent Itokawa’s asteroid’s nano crater are reviewed and explained mainly by dimensional analysis. The author discusses perspectives of the relation between soft matter physics and planetary science, since it is an important step towards unifying physics and planetary science, in both of which fields crater morphology has been studied independently.