How come the Moon has so many craters and we don't, Yet we are so near to the moon. Was it just good luck?

Answer 1

We do have good luck in the fact that we have an atmosphere which burns up most celestial debris before it has a chance to make contact with solid ground.

The moon has virtually no atmosphere, therefore it has nothing to deflect or burn up anything heading towards it. Also, having no atmosphere, the moon has no winds which prevents erosion or the moving of its surface to cover up and hide those impact craters, so they will always remain visible.

The Earths atmosphere deflects and or burns up most celestial debris before it has a chance to impact with the surface. However, there are hard metal meteorites that do survive breaking through our atmosphere and yes, they can and do leave craters. Most of those would be covered in days - weeks depending on size.

There are also large impact craters on our surface which you can still see today due to their enormous size. Do a search on google.com for "Impact Craters" and you'll be amazed with what pops up. Our planet has been impacted on a large scale several times. You just have to look :)

Answer 2

Most of the answers have mentioned the atmosphere as a reason that the moon has craters and the Earth doesn't. This is only partially correct.
The Earth has plate tectonics which cause the Earth to be constantly resurfaced through volcanic flows and water flows. The moon has no magnetic feild and no plate tectonics. The Earth has been struck by celestial objects in the past but our surface is being covered over by new crust all the time.
Incidently, the only other body in the solar system where this happens is Io. Aside from the Earth, it is the only "active" body in the solar system.

Answer 3

It took millions of years for the early solar system to clear itself of all the debris flying around and crashing into all the planets and moons.

Earth was hit by more space rocks than the moon because of its stronger gravity, but the stronger gravity also meant that our home planet has an atmosphere, and many of those rocks burned up before they hit the ground. The ones that did hit the surface produced craters, most of which however were eroded away by another atmospheric effect called weathering.

Yet another way craters were obliterated on Earth was by geologic activity: earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. The moon has no atmosphere and is geologically inactive, hence its craters have endured for billions of years and are only disturbed when another meteor makes a newer crater on top of an old one.

Answer 4

The Moon's craters were made by meteorites hitting it. On a clear night, when the moon is full, you can see big craters such as Corpernicus with the naked eye.

Many of the moon's craters are surrounded by pale looking lines called rays. the rays were made by dust that was thrown out when the meteorites landed.

And especially, it has no atmosphere to protect it.

The thing that we don't have craters is we have a thick atmosphere which protect it and when meteoroids fall into Earth's atmosphere, they burn up and make a bright streak across the sky.

Answer 5

Good luck because the earth has an atmosphere that protects us from a lot of those crater causing meteoroids.
Most burn up in our atmosphere. The earth does have plenty of craters though. most are too small to notice, and many are worn away by wind and water erosion. One of the more notable craters is just east of Flaggstaff Arizona, Meteor Crater. It has a diameter around the rim of over 2 miles.

The moon lies outside protective boundary of our atmosphere, and thus takes quite a bit more pummeling.

Answer 6

Lots of folks have mentioned earth's atmosphere, anything too small to penetrate our atmosphere would also be too small to leave a crater on the moon still visible from earth. Yes, there are tiny impact craters on the moon, but I think the intent of the question concerns all those visible through a decent telescope.

Just about every mentioned plate tectonics and weathering. Amen!

Mars also has lots of craters, as does Venus. You can see some cool looking martian craters on NASA's apod web site.

Answer 7

The moon could act as a shield if we analyze the situation, in outer space there are many frozen rocks, meteors, asteroids that hit anything in their way in this case the moon. That's the reason why there are so many craters.

Yes it is good luck if we analyze the moons gravity is much less than the earth's, so we are supposed to have more craters becouse of our gravity but the moon is our guardian!

Answer 8

1. Many of the objects of sizes that cratered the moon burned up in earth's atmosphere before impact.
2. Those that did impact had a 75% chance of hitting water.
3. Those that reached land were subject to erosion and weathering.

Our greatest "luck" is our atmosphere.

Answer 9

The Moon does not have an atmosphere. Most of the debris that enters the Earth's atmosphere burns up before reaching the ground. This is because of an Aerodynamic phenomenon known as "Skin Friction Drag." When you rub your hands together they start to get warm or hot (this is friction.) Rocks coming down from space experience the same effect from the air it is passing through. Higher speeds mean more friction and more heat. When the SR-71 comes back from a high speed flight it is extremely hot to the touch.

Answer 10

Think about it!! What do we have that the moon doesn't???!!! An atmosphere!! The moon does not have much atmosphere to burn up meteors. But when they pass through Earth's atmosphere, most meteors burn up because of the heat. This is why we don't have as many craters as the moon. Some large meteors can make it through the atmosphere.