the.com/impactor
the universe's way of hitting delete and accidentally hitting create.
means an object, usually cosmic, that collides with another with enough force to reshape or destroy it.
from from latin impingere, to push or strike against, but the modern astronomical sense took off in the 20th century once scientists started mapping craters and asking politely what made them.
dinosaur enderchicxulub impactor was roughly 10 km wide.
moon makertheia, a mars-sized impactor, may have formed the moon.
nasa testdart mission crashed one into an asteroid on purpose.
speed factorimpact energy scales with velocity squared, not mass.