A new chronology for the Moon and Mercury
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
2015-05-13 v1
Abstract
In this paper we present a new method for dating the surface of the Moon, obtained by modeling the incoming flux of impactors and converting it into a size distribution of resulting craters. We compare the results from this model with the standard chronology for the Moon showing their similarities and discrepancies. In particular, we find indications of a non-constant impactor flux in the last 500 Myr and also discuss the implications of our findings for the Late Heavy Bombardment hypothesis. We also show the potential of our model for accurate dating of other inner Solar System bodies, by applying it to Mercury.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0903.5137,
title = {A new chronology for the Moon and Mercury},
author = {S. Marchi and S. Mottola and G. Cremonese and M. Massironi and E. Martellato},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0903.5137},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
27 pages, 13 figures, 1 table; accepted by AJ