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Late Heavy Bombardment

What Craters on the Moon Teach Us About Earth

January 10, 2013

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter When the Moon was receiving its highest number of impacts, so was Earth. Credit: Dan Durda Some questions about our own planet are best answered by looking someplace else entirely… in the case of impact craters and when, how and how [...]

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Ancient Asteroids Kept Pelting Earth in a ‘Late-Late’ Heavy Bombardment

April 25, 2012

Even though the Late Heavy Bombardment is somewhat of a controversial idea, new research has revealed this period of impacts to the Earth-Moon system may have lasted much longer than originally estimated and well into the time when early life was forming on Earth. Additionally, this “late-late” period of impacts — 3.8 billion to 2.5 [...]

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New Research Casts Doubt on the Late Heavy Bombardment

January 5, 2012

Was the early solar system bombarded with lots of big impacts? This is a question that has puzzled scientists for over 35 years. And it’s not just an academic one. We know from rocks on Earth that life began to evolve very early on, at least 3.8 billion years ago. If the Earth was being [...]

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A Cometary Case for Titan’s Atmosphere

May 9, 2011

Titan is a fascinating world to planetary scientists. Although it’s a moon of Saturn it boasts an opaque atmosphere ten times thicker than Earth’s and a hydrologic cycle similar to our own – except with frigid liquid methane as the key component instead of water. Titan has even been called a living model of early [...]

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“Marstinis” Could Help Explain Why the Red Planet is So Small

February 2, 2011

Mars is a small planet. In fact, for scientists who do solar system modeling, the planet is too small. “This is an outstanding problem in terrestrial planet formation,” said Dr. David Minton from the Southwest Research Institute. “Everyone who does simulations of how you form terrestrial planets always ends up with a Mars that is [...]

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