Current bombardment of the Earth–Moon system: Emphasis on cratering asymmetries

Abstract

We calculate the current spatial distribution of projectile delivery to the Earth and Moon using numerical orbital dynamics simulations of candidate impactors drawn from a debiased Near-Earth Object (NEO) model. We examine the latitude distribution of impactor sites and find that for both the Earth and Moon there is a small deficiency of time-averaged impact rates at the poles. The ratio between deliveries within 30° of the pole to that of a 30° band centered on the equator is small for Earth (<5%) ( 0.958 ± 0.001 ) and somewhat greater for the Moon (∼10%) ( 0.903 ± 0.005 ). The terrestrial arrival results are examined to determine the degree of AM/PM asymmetry to compare with the PM excess shown in meteorite fall times. We find that the average lunar impact velocity is 20 km/s, which has ramifications in converting observed crater densities to impactor size distributions. We determine that current crater production on the leading hemisphere of the Moon is 1.28 ± 0.01 that of the trailing when considering the ratio of craters within 30° of the apex to those within 30° of the antapex and that there is virtually no nearside–farside asymmetry, in agreement with observations of rayed craters. As expected, the degree of leading–trailing asymmetry increases when the Moon's orbital distance is decreased.