From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Mon Oct 10 2005 - 12:19:46 PDT
Paper: astro-ph/0510200
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 22:27:54 GMT (481kb)
Title: The origin of planetary impactors in the inner solar system
Authors: Robert G. Strom, Renu Malhotra, Takashi Ito, Fumi Yoshida, David A.
Kring
Comments: 12 pages (including 4 figures)
Journal-ref: Science 309, 1847-1850 (2005)
\\
New insights into the history of the inner solar system are derived from the
impact cratering record of the Moon, Mars, Venus and Mercury, and from the
size
distributions of asteroid populations. Old craters from a unique period of
heavy bombardment that ended $\sim$3.8 billion years ago were made by
asteroids
that were dynamically ejected from the main asteroid belt, possibly due to
the
orbital migration of the giant planets. The impactors of the past $\sim$3.8
billion years have a size distribution quite different from the main belt
asteroids, but very similar to the population of near-Earth asteroids.
\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0510200 , 481kb)
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