Why are there craters on the Moon

We have all looked at the moon at night. The Moon is one of the brightest elements that we can observe in the sky and that ease of vision has made it very important for humans. Even so, the Moon is still a very unknown element for many people, and there is much ignorance about many of its characteristics. To get to know this satellite better today in a PROFESSOR we are going to talk about why are there craters on the moon.

The moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth, that is, the only celestial body that orbits our planet. The Moon is a very special satellite, being the fifth largest in the Solar System but being the largest in proportion to its planet. This leads some scholars to consider talking about a binary system of planets, rather than talking about a planet and a satellite.

The Moon is in a position synchronized with the Earth, so we always see the same face of the satellite. It is one of the brightest elements that we can see in the sky but the reality is that the surface is very black and dark. The ease we have to see it has made it a very important element for our society, influencing things like the calendar and mythology.

Although its influence is not only cultural, producing its existence great effects on Earth such as the tides or the length of the days. The importance of the Moon also lies in the fact that it is the only celestial body in which the Earth has made a manned descent, carried out by the United States in the 70s. Even so, it has also received numerous unmanned visits from countries such as China, Russia or Japan.

One of the elements that most surprises when observing the Moon is the existence of many craters all over its surface. Due to the importance of these craters to understand the Moon we have to talk about why there are craters on the Moon.

Throughout the history of space, many have been the asteroids or meteorites that have collided with our atmosphere, like many of these elements have collided with the Moon. It should be noted that there was a time between 3800 and 4100 million years ago, called late heavy bombardment, in which many celestial bodies in the Solar System suffered large asteroid impacts. The bodies that received the most damage were Mercury and the MoonThe main consequence being the creation of numerous craters on the surface of both celestial bodies.

Because there are craters on the Moon and not on Earth

The reason that these impacts are seen on the Moon and not on the Earth are very diverse, with many processes that occur on Earth but do not take place on the Moon. They are mainly three processes:

• Erosion: Climate, water and plants work together to change the soil, so erosion can make craters disappear.
• Tectonics: The movement of the Earth's plates causes the Earth's surface to continuously recycle, not being the same current rocks that were found on the planet during the arrival of the asteroids.
• Volcanoes: The volcanic flow covers the craters on our surface, it is a slow process but it makes these craters disappear.

These three processes do not happen on the Moon. The satellite has no atmosphere, no climate, no plants, and no wind, so there is no type of erosion and the marks left on the surface can be maintained for centuries. An example of the absence of erosion on the satellite is that the footprints left by the astronauts will remain on the Moon for many years.

Moon it also does not have tectonics, so there is no renewal of the soil that forms the craters. Finally there are the volcanic flows, which for a time did exist on the satellite, but in the last million years these flows have disappeared, reason why the craters have not been eliminated.

So we could say that the main reason why there are craters on the Moon and not on Earth is that the satellite does not have the great processes that our planet does.