W wyniku bombardowania Księżyca powierzchnia jest odnawiana co 81 000 lat.
Planetoidy i komety uderzające w powierzchnię naszego satelity generują średnio 180 nowych kraterów o średnicy co najmniej 10 metrów rocznie.
Tak wynika z danych dostarczonych przez LRO.
Odkryto 222 nowe kratery impaktowe i zidentyfikowano o 33 % więcej kraterów o średnicy co najmniej 10 metrów niż oczekiwano.
Jest to poważny argument przemawiający za umieszczaniem przyszłych baz pod powierzchnią Księżyca.
The Moon is bombarded by so much space rock that its surface gets a complete facelift every 81,000 years, according to a study released Wednesday based on NASA data.
This churn—affecting the top two centimetres (nearly an inch) of mostly loose moon dust—happens 100 times more frequently than previously thought, scientists reported.
The study also estimates that asteroids and comets crashing into Earth's only natural satellite create, on average, 180 new craters at least 10 metres (33 feet) in diameter every year.
The findings, published in Nature, come from "before and after" pictures taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, which has been mapping the Moon since 2009.
By comparing images of the same area at regular intervals, a team of scientists led by Emerson Speyerer from Arizona State University in Tempe were able to tally the number of new craters and extrapolate to the entire surface of the Moon.
"We detected 222 new impact craters and found 33 percent more craters with a diameter of at least 10 metres than predicted" by earlier models, the researchers concluded.
http://www.pulskosmosu.pl/2016/10/13/facelifting-ksiezyca-co-81-000-lat/http://phys.org/news/2016-10-facelift-moon-years.html