Late Heavy Bombardment – Astronomy Now

A recent uptick in impact events on the Moon and on Earth

20 January 2019 Astronomy Now

Data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate the number of impact events on the Moon nearly tripled over the past 290 million years.

Moon’s Imbrium Basin formed by protoplanet-sized asteroid impact

20 July 2016 Astronomy Now

Around 3.8 billion years ago, an asteroid more than 150 miles across slammed into the Moon and created the Imbrium Basin — the right eye of the fabled Man in the Moon. New research suggests an Imbrium impactor that was two times larger in diameter and 10 times more massive than previous estimates.

Early Mars bombardment likely enhanced its habitability

6 April 2016 Astronomy Now

Much of the action on Mars occurred during a period known as the Late Heavy Bombardment about 3.9 billion years ago. Large comets and asteroids raining down on the planet would have produced enough heat to melt subsurface ice, likely enhancing climate conditions enough to make Mars more conducive to life — at least for a time.

Zircon study questions dates for cataclysms on early Moon and Earth

18 October 2015 Astronomy Now

Phenomenally durable crystals called zircons are used to date some of the earliest and most dramatic cataclysms of the solar system, such as the late heavy bombardment that created hellish surface conditions on the young Earth and Moon about 4 billion years ago. Now a study of zircons from a gigantic meteorite impact in South Africa casts doubt on the methods used to date lunar impacts.

Early Moon’s far-side crust shattered by barrage of small asteroids

11 September 2015 Astronomy Now

Scientists at MIT and elsewhere have identified regions on the far side of the Moon, called the lunar highlands, that may have been so heavily pelted by small asteroids during a period called the Late Heavy Bombardment 4 billion years ago that the impacts completely shattered the upper crust, leaving these regions essentially as fractured and porous as they could be.