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How boulders erode into ponds on Eros

How boulders erode into ponds on Eros
How boulders erode into ponds on Eros An explanation for how ponds form on Eros: (a) a large impact tosses a boulder into a local depression. (b) thermal cycling (the rapid temperature changes from day to night on airless Eros) weathers the boulder, breaking off grains that get deposited around it as debris aprons. (c) seismic shaking from other impacts jiggles the material inside the depression, causing it to smooth out and fill the floor. The buried (and thus preserved) remnant of the original boulder is indicated with dashed lines. Dombard et al. 2010