• Impacts on Asteroids Produce Regolith, Erase Small Craters (Planetary Science Institute)

Coming to you from right here at PSI, scientists have discovered that the same effects that weather the moon also affect objects as small as the asteroid 433 Eros. In a new paper appearing in the journal Icarus, a team lead by James Richardson has found that the steady impact of small objects onto Eros have a way of erasing other craters over time. This happens in two ways. Easiest to understand is the way small impacts simply batter down the surface, crumbling rocks to regolith and eroding sharp edged craters like rain on an unbaked adobe wall. Additionally, these impacts cause seismic tremors, and like tapping on the edge of a cup filled with flour will level the flour, tapping on an asteroid will level the regolith. This packs a one 2 punch that both effects the things being collided with and distant features that are simply getting shaken, and not stirred.