Tuesday

The surface of the Moon, Mercury and Pluto are highly cratered due to impacts of meteorites, asteroids, comets and other celestial objects. The origin, size, structure, age and composition vary among craters. We study a total 526 craters out of these 339 craters are observed on the Moon, 152 on the Mercury and 35 on the Pluto. The craters considered for our investigation are from both known and unknown categories as per IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. We employ images taken by LROC, by MDIS and MLA onboard MESSENGER and by LORRI and Ralph onboard New Horizons to study craters on the Moon, Mercury and Pluto respectively. We derive depth (d) and diameter (D) from image processing as well as shadow techniques. We also study longitude and latitude distribution of craters. We compare our results for known craters with those derived earlier and found satisfactory within 2% error. The surfaces of the Moon and Mercury are heavily cratered on higher latitudes. Many craters follow the scaling-law relationship between d and D, while many do not follow this relationship. Based on this relationship we propose structure and possible composition of the impacting body causing the crater. We present results of our detailed study of the craters on the Moon, Mercury and Pluto and generalize the formation of the solar system.