The moon is bombarded with meteorites, with a frequency a hundred times greater than astronomers thought previously.
It found American scientists from the University of Arizona and Cornell University, published the results of a study in the journal Nature.
Such meteor storms are a threat for a possible space settlements.
Astronomers have been studying pictures of the lunar surface obtained by the automatic interplanetary station Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Since 2009, the chamber made about a million high-resolution images. 14 thousands of photos were captured of the same area, which allowed for a comparative analysis.
Scientists discovered 222 the newly formed crater, whose diameter varies from a few to tens of meters. This suggests that the moon is constantly falling meteorites. The astronomers also revealed 47 thousand changes in the surface topography satellite, which emerged from the pieces of molten rock thrown with high speed at impact of the cosmic body.
According to scientists, meteor showers raise a large amount of lunar dust, which then slowly settles. This means that the traces of the astronauts of the United States, vysazhivaetsya to the natural satellite of the moon, will disappear sooner than previously thought.
