The Late Heavy Bombardment May Have Never Happened

A popular theory among astronomers is that the inner solar system was subjected to a large number of impacts shortly after the planets were formed. Meteorites, asteroids and comets struck everything in their path, especially Earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury and the Moon. The idea provides an elegant explanation for why Earth has oceans, among other things.

Yet, data provided by the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) suggest that this did not happen. In fact, experts are divided between two main camps – one arguing that the LHB occurred 3.8 billion years ago, and another arguing that the event was stretched from 4.3 to 3.8 billion years ago.

An in-depth analysis of lunar crates has revealed that the line between the two proposals is finer than anyone thought, and that a clear answer will have to receive independent confirmation from studies conducted on other objects in the solar system, Universe Today reports.