Could a meteor have wiped away Neil Armstrong's footprints on the moon?

Question

My child's third grade was asked: Would the footprints from 1969 still be on the moon? Explain. He wrote: No, because maybe a meteor came and wiped them away. His teacher said that was a "silly" answer.

Answer 1

What the teacher wanted was for him to say, "Yes, because the moon has no atmosphere, and thus no weather to blow or wash away the footprints". She's got greater odds of being correct than your kid

But your kid is also possibly right. The lack of atmosphere which makes the moon weatherless also promotes meteoric impacts. Although I doubt that Tranquility Base (where Armstrong walked) has been hit by a meteor in the past fortyish years it's not technically impossible.

The point of elementary school, IMHO, is to suppress your creative thinking and prepare you to be a good little cog in whatever corporate machine you end up in.

Answer 2

Doubtful. It's certainly possible a small meteor, small enough to escape detection, has impacted at the Apollo 11 site and messed up some of the footprints, but to have disturbed the entire landing site it probably would have been large enough to have been noticed. Still, remember that there is no telescope yet that can see with enough detail to even directly observe any of the Apollo landing sites, so we don't know what condition things are in. The frequency of small meteor impacts is so low that it's unlikely there's been any noticeable changes. The footprints will likely be there for millions of years, if not billions.

Answer 3

Your child was correct, in that it is possible for a meteor to erase the footprints, though the question sounds as though it was related more to the general lack of atmosphere and wind than a freak instance. The footprints could be erased by a small direct impact, or an impact at a distance relative to the size needed to disrupt them by seismic vibration or accumulation of ejecta (the matter blown from point of impact).
Given that something of that nature would be a highly-visible event (at least in the media) it's understandable why his teacher could dismiss it. Calling his answer silly may not be the best way to regard his obviously explorative answer, but that's when it may fall to you to let him know that it could happen, it just hasn't so far.

Answer 4

there is not atmosphere in on the moon, and therefor, no wind which could have swept the footprints away from a meteor near by. If however, a meteor landed directly on the foot prints, they would obviously be "wiped away". The chances of this happening are small though.

Answer 5

Maybe. Because the Apollo 11 astronauts stayed pretty close to their vehicle all their footprints *may* have been blown away by the rocket exhaust when they took off. But on the later missions the astronauts walked pretty far, and the last 3 had the rover and they drove miles away from the LM. Those footprints are definitely still there.

Answer 6

The probability of a meteor landing on the footprints, or near enough the cover the prints with dust is very low. However, it is not a silly answer because it is possible. Tell his teacher to promote creativity, not stifle it! It is a perfectly reasonable answer and a brilliant one I might add!

Answer 7

well there is no air to make wind blow them away so a meteor seems like the right answer right?

actually, i don't think it's possible. simply because Neil Armstrong was never on the moon. They filmed the landing in a studio. Proof is, the flag was waving. If air couldn't have blown away his footprints, it couldn't have blown the flag.

but either way, its possible, but improbable

Answer 8

It's certainly possible. The Moon gets pelted by stuff all the time, especially micrometeorites. (Earth's atmosphere prevents us from getting pelted by micrometeorites.) These micrometeorites actually do cause a sort of erosion on the Moon. Chances are, however, that the footprints are still there.

Answer 9

There is a slight chance that that could have happened. More likely than not, they're still there but there is an outside possibility.

Answer 10

I think I would call her out on calling his answer "silly". He was thinking and that should be encouraged. I hate it when teachers put kids down. Tell her/him like it is.