NASA completed its first ever topographic map of the moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been circling the moon since June 2009. The data it gathered has suggested that 3.9 billion years ago asteroids hit both the moon and the Earth, and caused the water supplies to evaporate.
NASA's Moon Topographic Map Important in Earth's History
The data from the orbiter is like the Rosetta stone for determining the history of Earth’s bombardment. Apparently, the lunar record is a hieroglyphics for the Earth’s impact record. NASA scientists take them and translate them and are able to apply that to the Earth’s history since their history is similar.
The moon was actually hit with asteroids or comets two times when it was young, and the LRO showed that the surface of the moon is much more complex than scientists previously believed. There are three papers on the LRO mission featured in the September 17 issue of Science. To see images of the LRO mission click here.
The history of major impacts on Earth is important because such a dramatic hit actually changes the entire history of the planet. The discoveries made with the first ever topographic map of the moon from NASA have been important to decoding the impact history of Earth.
© Copyright: News Today Online by Kate James at Gather.com
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Comments: 2
I think we need to get back to human exploration, too, and am hopeful that emerging competitors like Japan, China & others will shift more of the focus back to 'more meaningful' space projects.
The early history of the earth (and moon) are critical for ironing out the models we use for the emergence of life. Within a short time, we should see many exciting new articles about the LRO results. Cool!