A rendering of the Moon in the foreground, with a larger Earth behind it.

Impact History of the Earth-Moon System

The impact history of the Earth-Moon system provides a historical record of our entire solar system.

The Moon’s surface contains a complete record of the impact history of the inner solar system that stretches back to the formation of the Earth-Moon system, unlike the Earth, where rocks are recycled through plate tectonics or weathered away by fluvial and aeolian processes. Understanding the Moon’s impact history can therefore help us better understand the impact history of the Earth-Moon system and how these impacts affected our own planet.

The brightly illuminated Earth in nearly full view over the dimly lit lunar surface in the foreground. The Earth is seen in the center but is partly cut off on the bottom by the Moon’s surface. There is a flurry of white clouds in the southern hemisphere past the tip of Africa. The African continent peaks through Earth’s busy atmosphere and the sapphire blue ocean shines brilliantly around it.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured this breathtaking image of Earth as it was orbiting the Moon. This is a composite image from a series of pictures taken October 12, 2015, when the spacecraft was approximately 134 km above the lunar crater, Compton. The image was created by using the high-resolution black-and-white Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) and lower-resolution color imaging Wide Angle Camera (WAC). These two cameras used together allowed scientists to put a clear and colorful image together of the Earthrise on the Moon.
NASA

Returning samples from the giant South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far side of the Moon will enable us to determine the age of the basin and anchor the early Earth-Moon impact-flux curve. Returned samples and studies of crater statistics indicate that the lunar impactor flux was relatively constant over the last 3 billion years but was much higher before this time period. Some models of planet formation suggest there was a “late heavy bombardment” period around 3.9 billion years (just about the time life on Earth was emerging), when the impact flux in the inner solar system was incredibly high. Dating SPA will help us better determine whether there was a spike in impacts during this time interval, and if so, how that may have affected life on Earth.

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The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

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