Strikes on the lunar surface occur 100 times more often than previously thought.
The researchers analyzed data that were obtained with the automatic interplanetary station Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and came to the conclusion that meteorites bombarding the moon much more often than thought before.
Over the past seven years on the Earth’s satellite was formed hundreds of new craters.
The researchers compared 14 thousand images of the lunar surface before and after the launch of LRO and found there 222 of the crater with a width of over 10 meters. 30% more than the researchers had expected to find.
According to researchers, this dynamic poses a risk to future lunar bases and settlers. “Before the launch of LRO, we believed that significant changes to the surface of the moon requires hundreds and thousands of millions of years. In reality, however, the top layer is completely renewed in about 80 thousand years,” said study author Emerson Speyer.
