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)
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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)