Karoo (crater)

It is 33.4 kilometers in diameter and was the most prominent crater seen during NEAR Shoemaker's flyby of the asteroid.

Mathilde is thus a particularly interesting case, since it is the largest asteroid imaged at sufficient resolution to show that its topography is clearly exogenic, governed by impacts.

This seems odd, and Cheng and Barnouin-Jha (1999)[1] find Mathilde's survival unlikely, and appeal to oblique impacts.

But it may be an effect of preservation in the case where Dcrit is so large that even hemisphere-spanning craters are, by definition, “local.” If, for example, Mathilde's attenuation is somewhat higher than usual, say α = 1.4, then based on Fig.

Indeed, if Karoo, at 33 km diameter, represents Dcrit and resurfaced the asteroid, then the 5 or more other giant impacts must have happened subsequently, which is highly unusual given that they are in fact almost just as large.