Venus: Craters Eudocia and Morisot 4.10
Top: 450 km wide Magellan image showing fractured volcanic plains bearing two obvious impact craters surrounded by radar-bright ejecta (60°South, 206°East). The craters are Eudocia (left - 28 km diameter) and Morisot (right - 55 km diameter). Below: enlarged view of each crater.
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Image Credit: NASA  

About a thousand impact craters have been identified on Venus, the largest being 280 km in diameter. Because the dense atmosphere prevents small impactors reaching the surface with sufficient speed to form craters, the smallest impact craters on Venus are about 3 km across. Many of these are poorly formed or occur as overlapping clusters, suggesting the impactor broke up in the atmosphere shortly before impact. However, from 30 km diamter upwards each crater is virtually a work of art, with a central peak, sharp rim and a surrounding blanket of rough ejecta with a lobate edge characteristic of ejecta flow in a dense atmosphere. Two such craters appear in the images above. The radar-bright halo beyond the even brighter ejecta blanket surrounding the crater Eudocia in the upper left is more finely dispersed ejecta.  
text credit: David A Rothery Return to top of page