What are craters?

Craters are like big round holes you get when something smashes into another thing really hard.

Imagine you're playing with marbles on a table. If one marble zooms into another and knocks it off the table, that other marble might leave a little hole in the spot where it landed, kind of like a small crater. That’s what happens in space too! When a space rock, like an asteroid or a comet, crashes into a planet or moon, it makes a crater.

Think about throwing a ball at a sand pile. If the ball is really fast and heavy, it might dig right into the sand and make a round hole, that's like a crater!

Sometimes, when something hits really hard, there can be a big bump around the hole too, just like when you jump on a trampoline and make a big splash.

Craters are found all over our moon, and even on Earth. You might see them in places where meteorites have landed, they’re like giant versions of the holes we make with marbles or balls!