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Ernst Julius Öpik's (1916) note on the theory of explosion cratering on the Moon's surface—The complex case of a long‐overlooked benchmark paper

2014; Wiley; Volume: 49; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/maps.12367

1945-5100

Grzegorz Racki, Christian Koeberl, Tönu Viik, Elena A. Jagt‐Yazykova, John W.M. Jagt,

Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life

Abstract High‐velocity impact as a common phenomenon in planetary evolution was ignored until well into the twentieth century, mostly because of inadequate understanding of cratering processes. An eight‐page note, published in Russian by the young Ernst Julius Öpik, a great Estonian astronomer, was among the key selenological papers, but due to the language barrier, it was barely known and mostly incorrectly cited. This particular paper is here intended to serve as an explanatory supplement to an English translation of Öpik's article, but also to document an early stage in our understanding of cratering. First, we outline the historical–biographical background of this benchmark paper, and second, a comprehensive discussion of its merits is presented, from past and present perspectives alike. In his theoretical research, Öpik analyzed the explosive formation of craters numerically, albeit in a very simple way. For the first time, he approximated relationships among minimal meteorite size, impact energy, and crater diameter; this scaling focused solely on the gravitational energy of excavating the crater (a “useful” working approach). This initial physical model, with a rational mechanical basis, was developed in a series of papers up to 1961. Öpik should certainly be viewed as the founder of the numerical simulation approach in planetary sciences. In addition, the present note also briefly describes Nikolai A. Morozov as a remarkable man, a forgotten Russian scientist and, surprisingly, the true initiator of Öpik's explosive impact theory. In fact, already between 1909 and 1911, Morozov probably was the first to consider conclusively that explosion craters would be circular, bowl‐shaped depressions even when formed under different impact angles.