Strom, R.G., Malhotra, R., Ito, T., Yoshida, F., Kring, D.A., The origin of planetary impactors in the inner solar system, Science 309, 1847-1850 (2005).
Abstract Full Text
Click here for a close-up image of lunar terrain.
This image is of the lunar highlands from the Consolidated Lunar Atlas, which was produced during the Apollo Era by our home laboratory (The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory). Our new study indicates this terrain was shaped by the bombardment of impactors dominated by asteroids (not comets) that were flung into the inner solar system when the asteroid belt was destabilized by migrating giant planet resonances. The Earth was similarly bombarded but its geological activity has erased most evidence of that bombardment. This historical image of the heavily cratered lunar terrain was taken on 1 April 1966.
More info on the (classical) moons at www.nineplanets.org
The Kuiper Belt (art by Don Dixon)
The Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud (drawing from JPL)
More info at Dave Jewitt's KB page
Classical, Resonant and Scattered KBOs (a scatter-plot of orbital parameters)
Migrating Planets (Scientific American article)
Sedna (the most distant world known in the Solar system)
Dust ring (shepherded by Earth)
Back (to Renu Malhotra's Web Page)
Last edited June 2, 2004
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