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Meteor Impact Crater: Impact Physics (2D)

A side-view impact lab: set the impactor's diameter, velocity, angle and material, launch it into scaled ground, and read the crater size straight off the real Collins–Melosh–Marcus scaling law used to estimate real impact craters.

Earth2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This 2D companion trades the orbiting 3D scene for a side-on view built to make the numbers legible: a control panel sets the impactor's diameter (10 m – 2 km), impact velocity (11–72 km/s, the real range for Earth-crossing objects), impact angle and both impactor and target densities, and pressing Launch drives a meteor along a straight trajectory to a scaled crater. Every impact is scored with the Collins–Melosh–Marcus (2005) pi-group transient-crater scaling law — the same relation used by planetary scientists' Earth Impact Effects Program — converting impactor size, speed, density and angle into kinetic energy, TNT-equivalent yield, transient and final crater diameter, crater depth and whether the result falls in the simple bowl-crater or complex terraced-crater regime.

⚙ Under the hood

2D side-view impact lab that computes crater size from the real Collins–Melosh–Marcus pi-group scaling law, with a live readout of kinetic energy, TNT-equivalent yield, transient/final crater diameter and depth.

meteor impactcrater scaling lawkinetic energyimpact physicsplanetary science

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install