Pattern of Impact-Induced Ejecta from Granular Targets with Large Inclusions

TL;DR

This study investigates how impact-induced ejecta patterns vary with inclusion size in granular targets, combining experiments and simulations to develop a method for inferring subsurface structures of celestial bodies.

Contribution

It introduces a new experimental and simulation approach to understand ejecta patterns influenced by large inclusions and proposes a procedure for subsurface structure evaluation from ejecta images.

Findings

Ejecta intensity distribution depends on inclusion size.

Numerical simulations support experimental observations.

Proposed method for subsurface analysis from ejecta patterns.

Abstract

We performed impact experiments to observe patterns in an ejecta curtain with targets consisting of small sand particles and large inclusions comparable to or smaller than the size of the projectiles. The spatial intensity distributions in the ejecta at early stages of crater formation depend on the size of the inclusions. Our numerical simulations of radially spreading particles with different sizes support this result. Based on the results, we proposed a procedure for evaluating the subsurface structures of celestial bodies from the images of ejecta curtains obtained from space-impact experiments.