  Centaurs are solar system objects with orbits situated among the orbits of
Jupiter and Neptune. Centaurs represent one of the sources of Near-Earth
Objects. Thus, it is crucial to understand their orbital evolution which in
some cases might end in collision with terrestrial planets and produce
catastrophic events. We study the orbital evolution of the Centaurs toward the
inner solar system, and estimate the number of close encounters and impacts
with the terrestrial planets after the Late Heavy Bombardment assuming a steady
state population of Centaurs. We also estimate the possible crater sizes. We
compute the approximate amount of water released: on the Earth, which is about
0.00001 the total water present now. We also found sub-regions of the Centaurs
where the possible impactors originate from. While crater sizes could extend up
to hundreds of kilometers in diameter given the presently known population of
Centaurs the majority of the craters would be less than about 10 km. For all
the planets and an average impactor size of 12 km in diameter, the average
impact frequency since the Late Heavy Bombardment is one every 1.9 Gyr for the
Earth and 2.1 Gyr for Venus. For smaller bodies (e.g. > 1 km), the impact
frequency is one every 14.4 Myr for the Earth, 13.1 Myr for Venus and, 46.3 for
Mars, in the recent solar system. Only 53% of the Centaurs can enter into the
terrestrial planet region and 7% can interact with terrestrial planets.
