Progresses and prospects of impact crater studies.

Crater is a geologic structure in solid bodies (including the terrestrial planets, moons, and asteroids) formed by hyper-speed impact, and the impact process is extremely important to the formation and evolution of these celestial bodies. This paper presents a review of the studies on remote sensing observation, formation mechanism, and scientific application of craters. On the remote sensing study of craters, the topographic characteristics of the micro-craters, simple craters, complex craters, and impact basins are described; the related parameters in the morphological studies of craters are subsequently introduced, and the distribution characteristics of the minerals and rock types during the impact excavation process are analyzed; the methods of crater identification and the crater databases on the Moon, Mars, Ceres, and Vesta are summarized. On the studies of crater formation mechanism, the general formation process of the craters is firstly described, and then the most frequently used methods are presented, and the importance of the empirical equations is also elucidated. On the scientific applications of the craters, the principle and currently utilization of the planetary surface dating method with crater size-frequency distribution are firstly presented, and the applications, including modeling the lunar regolith formation and thickness derivation of both the regolith and basalt, are reviewed. Finally, the future prospects of the formation mechanism study of the craters are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]