• Question: why does the moon have holes in it

    Asked by 379sptm42 to Angus, Christine, Guy, Ollie on 2 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Guy Rixon

      Guy Rixon answered on 2 Mar 2018:


      You mean the craters? When the solar system was younger, all the moons and planets – including Earth – got hit by big rocks and comets. That leaves craters, but on a world with any atmosphere the craters get worn away by rain and rivers and earth movements. The moon has no atmosphere, so its craters are still there.

      Now, most of the big, loose rocks are gone (they hit the planets and stuck there) and the comets don’t come into the inner system so often. Earth still gets hit occasionally. There the faint remains of a big crater in the sea near Central America. That’s left over from the comet that killed the dinosaurs.

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