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The Late Heavy Bombardment of the Moon : a Prospectus
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Bottke, William F. Levison, Harold F. |
| Copyright Year | 2007 |
| Abstract | Motivating Problem. The Lunar Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) defines a time between ∼ 3.8 to possibly 4.1 Gy ago when the basins on the Moon with reasonably well-constrained ages were formed (e.g., Nectaris, Serenitatis, Imbrium, Orientale) [e.g., 1,2]. This topic has been fraught with controversy ever since it was introduced as a means to explain the absence of lunar rocks with isotopic recrystallization ages > 4.0 Gy old [3]. Nearly all lunar impact melt breccia samples have been found to have ages between 3.8 and 4.0 Gy old (e.g., [4]). Some argue this curious result is best explained by aterminal cataclysmproduced by a spike in the inner Solar System impactor flux between ∼ 3.8-4.0 Ga [e.g., 5]. Others argue that the LHB was actually the tail end of a monotonically decreasing impactor population originally produced by planet formation processes in the inner Solar System (i.e., the d clining bombardment ) [e.g., 1]. Understanding the nature of the LHB will allow us to determine how and when the planets of the Solar System reached their final configuration. Indeed, it will supply crucial clues to the temporal evolution of the planetary system as a whole. Moreover, we will be able to glean important insights into how this barrage of impactors in the inner Solar System affected the evolution of life on Earth (and possibly Mars as well). In this prospectus, we will briefly describe the current state of the art of LHB dynamical models and what new observations on the Moon could help us further constrain these models and, most likely, determine which (if any) actually represent what happened. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/LEA/whitepapers/Bottke_Levison_LHB_2007.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
