  How does the impact of a deformable droplet on a granular bed differ from
that caused by a solid impactor of similar size and density? Here, we
experimentally study this question and focus on the effect of intruder
deformability on the crater shape. For comparable impact energies, we show that
the crater diameter is larger for droplets than for solid intruders but that
the impact of the latter results in deeper craters. Interestingly, for
initially dense beds of packing fractions larger than 0.58, we find that the
resultant excavated crater volume is independent of the intruder deformability,
suggesting an impactor-independent dissipation mechanism within the sand for
these dense beds.
