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Science 20 June 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5627, pp. 1889 - 1890
DOI: 10.1126/science.1080687
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Perspectives

GEOSCIENCES:
Impact Cratering Comes of Age

Wolf U. Reimold

In 1994, fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into the atmosphere of Jupiter. The event illustrated how important impact cratering has been, and still is, for all solid bodies in the solar system. In his Perspective, Reimold charts the history of research into impact cratering, which began in earnest when the Apollo missions returned lunar samples. Many of these samples showed signs of shock deformation that could only have been created by major impacts. Today, there is evidence for past impact events throughout Earth's history. Major impact have been implicated in several mass extinctions, and surveys and space exploration are investigating the future threat from asteroid and comet impact to humankind.

The author is in the Impact Cratering Research Group, School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa. E-mail: reimoldw{at}geosciences.wits.ac.za

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)