Abstract The conditions of meteoritic impacts are generally unknown. It is not easy to estimate the impactor direction; a general solution to this problem does not exist. We seek an estimate of the impactor direction by means of a novel method; it is based on the gravity aspects (descriptors). These are various functions of the gravitational potential. They are derived from the global gravitational field models expressed in harmonic geopotential coefficients, collected and computed by other authors from various satellite and terrestrial data. We discovered that especially the gravity aspect called the strike angle is appropriate to assess the impactor direction in specific circumstances. We want to detect if the strike angles contain any anisotropy. We observe that the strike angles are combed within a certain distance from the impact craters owing to the peculiarities of the impact event (substrate and impactor conditions). They provide evidence about the stress anisotropy, specifically about the target material and in some cases about the impactor direction. The strike angles seem to be parallel to the weakness in the strength of the rock, e.g. direction schistosity and or presence of the microfaults. The strike angles probably follow the anisotropy of the rocks changed by the impact explosion. It is known from the literature that disrupted rocks in proximity to impact structures contain economically useful minerals and even hydrocarbon deposits. We present examples for the Earth and the Moon (craters, mare, catenae), using the recent gravity models EIGEN 6C4 and GRGM1200A, respectively.

中文翻译：

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重力撞击角：估计陨石坑撞击物方向的现代方法和工具

摘要 陨石撞击的条件通常是未知的。估计撞击器的方向并不容易；这个问题不存在通用的解决方案。我们通过一种新颖的方法来估计撞击器的方向；它基于重力方面（描述符）。这些是引力势的各种函数。它们源自以谐波位势系数表示的全球引力场模型，由其他作者从各种卫星和地面数据中收集和计算。我们发现，特别是称为撞击角的重力方面适用于评估特定情况下的撞击器方向。我们想检测撞击角是否包含任何各向异性。我们观察到，由于撞击事件的特殊性（基底和撞击器条件），撞击角在距撞击坑一定距离内被梳理。它们提供了关于应力各向异性的证据，特别是关于目标材料和在某些情况下关于撞击器方向的证据。走向角似乎与岩石强度的弱点平行，例如方向片理性和/或微断层的存在。撞击角可能跟随冲击爆炸改变的岩石的各向异性。从文献中可知，撞击结构附近的破碎岩石含有经济上有用的矿物甚至碳氢化合物沉积物。我们分别使用最近的重力模型 EIGEN 6C4 和 GRGM1200A 展示了地球和月球（陨石坑、母马、链）的示例。