What craters on the Moon teach us about Earth

January 10, 2013 by Jason Major, Universe Today in Astronomy & Space / Space Exploration
When the Moon was receiving its highest number of impacts, so was Earth. Credit: NASA/LPI


By studying lunar both young and old scientists can piece together the that took place during the violent moments of their creation, as well as determine how often —a considerably bigger target—was experiencing similar events (and likely in much larger numbers as well.)

With no substantial atmosphere, no weather and no , the surface of the Moon is a veritable for events taking place in our region of the Solar System. While our constantly-evolving Earth tends to hide its past, the Moon gives up its secrets much more readily… which is why present and future lunar missions are so important to science.

Take the crater Linné, for example. A young, pristine , the 2.2-km-wide Linné was formed less than 10 million years ago… much longer than humans have walked the Earth, yes, but very recently on lunar geologic terms.

It was once thought that the circular Linné (as well as other craters) is bowl-shaped, thus setting a precedent for the of craters on the Moon and on Earth. But observations by 's (at right) determined in early 2012 that that's not the case; Linné is actually more of a truncated inverted cone, with a flattened interior floor surrounded by sloping walls that rise up over half a kilometer to its rim.



(It's been suggested that there was even a longer period of heavy impact rates nicknamed the "late late heavy bombardment" that lingered up until about 2.5 billion years ago.)


– David Kring


It's these sorts of connections that make lunar exploration so valuable. Keys to our planet's past are literally sitting on the surface of the Moon, a mere 385,000 km away, waiting for us to just scoop them up and bring them back. While the hunt for a biological history on Mars or resource-mining an asteroid are definitely important goals in their own right, only the holds such direct references to Earth. It's like an orbiting index to the ongoing story of our planet—all we have to do is make the connections.

Source: Universe Today

"What craters on the Moon teach us about Earth" January 10, 2013 http://phys.org/news/2013-01-craters-moon-earth.html