Just days after a Google Earth–aided discovery of a meteor impact was announced in Science, yet another crater has been found using Google Maps and open-access software. The age of armchair crater hunting has arrived.
Physicist Amelia Sparavigna of Politecnico di Torino in Italy found a 6-mile-wide crater in the Bayuda desert in Sudan using Google Maps, a free astronomical image-processing program she helped develop called AstroFracTool, and open source image-processing tool GIMP. The work appeared on ArXiv Aug. 3.
While no one has gone to the Bayuda crater site to confirm that it was formed by a meteor impact, the discovery demonstrates that with freely available software and a lot of spare time, anyone can become part of the search for craters.
As of today, there are about 175 confirmed craters on Earth caused by the impact of material from space, according to the Impact Database maintained by geologist David Rajmon.
Most of the documented impacts are in North America and Western Europe. Either space objects prefer to hit those regions, or the rest of the planet is mostly unexplored.
The best place to look for impacts is in desert regions, where the craters are better preserved. If you're ready to join the search, the Impact Database website includes a detailed description of how to contribute.
Pointers include downloading Google Earth, searching for circular features, and remembering that most circular features on earth are not from the impact of space objects.
Let us know if you have any luck!
See Also:
- Meteor Crater Discovered With Google Earth
- Wednesday's Near-Earth Asteroid Caught on Film
- How to Defend Earth Against an Asteroid Strike
- Earth to Get Close Shave Wednesday From Newly Discovered Asteroid ...
- Asteroid Impact Craters on Earth as Seen From Space
Image: 1) Images A and C show the Bayuda desert crater images obtained directly from Google Maps, Images B and D have been processed with AstroFracTool and GIMP/ Amelia Sparavigna 2) Impact Database/David Rajmon.
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