Moon Sheds Light on Earth's Impact History
- Visualizations by:
- Ernie Wright
- View full credits
The Earth's crater record shows the same pattern. It was thought that some of the older craters were erased by weathering and geological processes, but the new Moon data suggest that the Earth record is a true reflection of the cratering rate — that the Earth has been hit more often in the recent past than it was a few hundred million years ago.
For More Information
See NASA's Moon Data Sheds Light on Earth's Asteroid Impact History
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
Visualizer
- Ernie Wright (USRA) [Lead]
Scientist
- Sara Mazrouei (University of Toronto)
Producer
- David Ladd (AIMM)
Papers
This visualization is based on the following papers:Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Datasets used in this visualization
LRO (Collected with the Diviner sensor)
LRO DEM (A.K.A. Digital Elevation Map) (Collected with the LOLA sensor)
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LROC WAC Color Mosaic (A.K.A. Natural Color Hapke Normalized WAC Mosaic) (Collected with the LRO Camera sensor)
This natural-color global mosaic is based on the 'Hapke normalized' mosaic from LRO's wide-angle camera. The data has been gamma corrected, white balanced, and range adjusted to more closely match human vision.
See more visualizations using this data setNote: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.
Related pages
Moon Craters a Window to Earth's Past
July 22nd, 2019
Read moreStudying asteroid impacts on the Moon uncovers Earth’s past. By analyzing data on lunar craters scientists have made a discovery about the history of impacts on the Earth and the Moon. Rock abundance dates craters. In older craters rocks have been ground to soil over millions of years by a constant rain of tiny meteorites. On Earth, the history of known craters shows in increase in impacts about 290 million years ago. The craters on the Moon show the same increase in frequency at 290 million years ago. Scientists are still investigating why. For More InformationSee [NASA.gov](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/815/nasas-moon-data-sheds-light-on-earths-asteroid-impact-history/) Related pages
Moon Sheds Light on Earth's Impact History
Feb. 7th, 2019
Read moreBy analyzing data on lunar craters provided by the Diviner instrument aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists have made a fascinating discovery about the history of impacts on both the Earth and the Moon.Music Provided by Killer Tracks: “The Starting Squad” - David Corboy & Guido CastilloWatch this video on the NASA.gov Video YouTube channel. By looking at the Moon, the most complete and accessible chronicle of the asteroid collisions that carved our young solar system, a group of scientists is challenging our understanding of a part of Earth’s history.The number of asteroid impacts to the Moon and Earth increased by two to three times starting around 290 million years ago, researchers reported in a January 18 paper in the journal Science.They could tell by creating the first comprehensive timeline of large craters on the Moon formed in the last billion years by using images and thermal data collected by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). When the scientists compared those to the timeline of Earth’s craters, they found the two bodies had recorded the same history of asteroid bombardment—one that contradicts theories about Earth’s impact rate. For More InformationSee [https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/815/nasas-moon-data-sheds-light-on-earths-asteroid-impact-history/](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/815/nasas-moon-data-sheds-light-on-earths-asteroid-impact-history/) Related pages