The discovery demonstrates that major impacts during Earth’s prehistory were not isolated occurrences. Instead, these asteroid impacts were accompanied by a series of smaller hits both here and on the moon, which has over 9,000 craters left by space rock impacts.
The findings could aid astronomers in better understanding the dynamics of the inner solar system and in calculating the likelihood of our planet being struck by potentially devastating massive space rocks in the future.
The results were obtained by studying microscopic glass beads within lunar soil samples returned to Earth by China’s Chang’e-5 lunar mission in 2020, according to scientists at Curtin University’s Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC).
Meteor strikes generate intense heat and pressure, which results in the formation of these tiny glass beads. This means that researchers can use the ages of these beads to reconstruct a timeline of lunar bombardment.
The SSTC team discovered that the timing and frequency of asteroid impacts on the moon were mirrored by space rock strikes on Earth, implying that the timeline the team created could also provide insight into the evolution of our planet.
