[meteorite-list] Dust in Earth's Attic

From: Robert & Wendi Beauford <wendirob_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:00:09 2004
Message-ID: <008201c23274$cfae58a0$ca4897cc_at_oemcomputer>

I've often wondered... since the moon has virtually no atmosphere to slow
down impactors, wouldn't a far higher percentage of material be converted to
energy and unidentifiable components upon impact with the moon?
Or could the dynamics of the ejection and capture process result in fairly
slow entry speeds for items from earth reaching the moon?
By the same token, and for the same reason, no atmosphere, I guess anything
that hit, even 3 billion years ago, should be pretty much intact unless
destroyed by subsequent impacts.
-Robert Beauford : )

> Because of the moon's position in the inner solar system, in
> theory it has collected material from all the planets. Earth
> matter probably is most abundant, since it is closest to the
> moon, but Armstrong, Wells and Gonzalez expect that fallout
> from Mars and Venus also is abundant enough that it could be
> recovered. They have calculated that, on average, perhaps 22
> tons of Earth material is spread over every 38 square miles
> of the moon.
Received on Tue 23 Jul 2002 02:14:38 PM PDT