why is it that it seems like our moon gets bombarded with asteroids but the earth not as often?

Question

i mean we are so enormously close on the cosmic scale..is the moon acting like a barrier that takes all the hits? i mean the earth does get hit occasionally but when you look at the moon the whole thing is all smashed in with craters

when there is no light in the city and you stare at the moon you can see little spots and if you can see those spots from this distance then they must be enormous. even if 30% hit the land of earth shouldn't it cost more destruction?

Answer 1

Earth has gotten hit about 10 times as much as the moon but earths geology wipes the craters away mainly through continental drift. Water and wind erosion also contributes. The smaller objects doesn´t even reach the surface as friction with the earths atmosphere heats them up so much they are annihilated. The moon has none of these and so every impact crater, even the tiny ones, is preserved.

"Tiny" is of course relative. The energy released by just a pebble size rock is still quite huge. We only see a streak of light down here while on the moon the same pebble might knock up a crater 10 feet in diameter. Bigger objects also impact the atmosphere. About 10 times a year an object explode high in the atmosphere with a force nearly equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb. Yet we don´t hear or feel the effects because it happens so high up in the outer layers of the atmosphere. Also the energy is released during a second or two while a nuclear blast releases all its energy in microseconds. Still these bolides are quite difficult for the US Air force to discern from an actual nuclear blast. When they occur at the wrong place and the wrong time, like over the middle east during GWI (Gulf War I), they routinely go into a state of alert thinking some rouge nation, in this case Iraq, has gone nuclear...

Answer 2

The earth is dynamic - erosion and weathering effects would have over time erased any evidence of a crater. The moon on the other hand has no such effects as there is no atmosphere, no wind, no liquid water. Hence any craters formed would be visible and unchanged.

The fact is that the earth may have been bombarded by a lot more asteroids than the moon, its just that a proportion don't make it through the atmosphere (burn up) and those that do make it form craters which are quickly eroded away by the elements.

Answer 3

The earth is dynamic - erosion and weathering effects would have over time erased any evidence of a crater. The moon on the other hand has no such effects as there is no atmosphere, no wind, no liquid water. Hence any craters formed would be visible and unchanged.

The fact is that the earth may have been bombarded by a lot more asteroids than the moon, its just that a proportion don't make it through the atmosphere (burn up) and those that do make it form craters which are quickly eroded away by the elements.

Answer 4

Well a lot those craters aren't exactly new. During the formation of this solar system and the formation of early Earth and early moon there was a lot of stuff flying about and a lot of impacts on Earth on the moon. Its just a lot easier to see all those impact sites on the moon because its barren. The Earth is covered with water and vegetation and its surface has constantly been recycled through plate tectonics over the last 4 billion years or so causing craters to be eroded or subducted or crushed. There's none of this on the moon so every crater pretty much is preserved until something else crashes into it.

Also, with no atmosphere on the moon, impactors don't burn up before they hit the surface. A lot of stuff hurdles towards the Earth but burns up in our atmosphere.

Answer 5

The Earth has been hit just as often; the difference is that 70% of the hits occur in the ocean, and on land craters are quickly eroded away. Therefore, we have many fewer craters than the Moon.

Answer 6

"seems like as soon as and asteroid or a meteorite reaches the earth's orbit, it gets pulled in until it smashes on to the surface of the planet." When did these events happen?! Lmao, you apparently don't realize how many asteroids come within moon's distance from Earth.

Answer 7

Since the moon has no atmosphere, the smaller objects that would burn up before impacting earth make it all the way to the surface of the moon. Impacts on the moon do not erode like on earth.

Answer 8

Actually the Earth has been hit more times than the moon, the Earth is much more massive so it attracts more debris from space. The moon has no way to erase the scars of impacts from meteorites so it appears to be have been hit more often.

Answer 9

we dont get hit very much with astroids because our atmosphere is very thick so it can stop the astroids from going any farther. Our atmosphere is a big help to our Earth. The moon doesnot have an atmosphere to save the moon from astroids so it gets hit. I hope i helped

Answer 10

The atmospher of earth get bombarded a lot, only most of them burn before they reach the surface, the moon has no atmosphere, there fore the surface will get hit all the time.