DEEP PENETRATION OF PROJECTILE MATERIAL INTO THE PLANET DURING THE IMPACT

A mechanism through which water could be buried inside tile Moon is fo und. If an icy comet strikes the planetary surface and a thin natural crack exists at the site of the impact, some amount of cometary materi al can penetrate deep into the ground. This happens due to peculiar fe atures of hydrodynamic flow along the crack. Numerical simulations bas ed on the free-Lagrangian method show that the amount of water buried under the crater is similar to several percent of the original mass of the projectile.