The Production of Terrestrial Meteorites – Moon Accretion and Lithopanspermia

Martin Beech; Mark Comte; Ian Coulson

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11

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The Production of Terrestrial Meteorites – Moon Accretion and Lithopanspermia

Martin Beech, Mark Comte, Ian Coulson

Published in American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Volume 7, Issue 1)

Received: 9 May 2019 Accepted: 12 June 2019 Published: 1 July 2019

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Abstract

The conditions under which terrestrial, impact-derived ejecta can be launched into cis-lunar space is studied. A numerical code is developed in order to follow the ablation and deceleration conditions of material ejected from the Earth’s surface and outwards through the atmosphere. The deceleration filtering-effect imposed by Earth’s atmosphere results in multi-meter-sized, 5 to 20 meters across, fragments escaping into cis-lunar space being favored. Smaller fragments tend to be more rapidly decelerated than larger ones and are re-accreted by the Earth. The conditions under which Earth-ejected material might impact upon the Moon is additionally considered. It is found that for encounter speeds smaller than some 7 km/s, terrestrial meteorites might be expected to survive upon impact (that is they will not undergo shock melting) when encountering the Moon’s regolith. It is argued that terrestrial meteorites may well survive, with identifiable features (fusion crust and mineralogy), for long periods of time within the lunar regolith (a result recently vindicated through the discovery of terrestrial material – launched during the late heavy bombardment – contained within a lunar impact breccia #14321, collected during the Apollo 14 Moon landing mission). Further to this, the important role that terrestrial meteorites must have played in transporting microbial life to other potentially habitable locations within the solar system is discussed.

Published in	American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Volume 7, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11
Page(s)	1-9
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Terrestrial Meteorites, Impact Craters, Impact Ejecta, Lithopanspermia

References

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APA Style

Martin Beech, Mark Comte, Ian Coulson. (2019). The Production of Terrestrial Meteorites – Moon Accretion and Lithopanspermia. American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 7(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11

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ACS Style

Martin Beech; Mark Comte; Ian Coulson. The Production of Terrestrial Meteorites – Moon Accretion and Lithopanspermia. Am. J. Astron. Astrophys. 2019, 7(1), 1-9. doi: 10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11

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AMA Style

Martin Beech, Mark Comte, Ian Coulson. The Production of Terrestrial Meteorites – Moon Accretion and Lithopanspermia. Am J Astron Astrophys. 2019;7(1):1-9. doi: 10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11

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@article{10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11,
  author = {Martin Beech and Mark Comte and Ian Coulson},
  title = {The Production of Terrestrial Meteorites – Moon Accretion and Lithopanspermia},
  journal = {American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics},
  volume = {7},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1-9},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajaa.20190701.11},
  abstract = {The conditions under which terrestrial, impact-derived ejecta can be launched into cis-lunar space is studied. A numerical code is developed in order to follow the ablation and deceleration conditions of material ejected from the Earth’s surface and outwards through the atmosphere. The deceleration filtering-effect imposed by Earth’s atmosphere results in multi-meter-sized, 5 to 20 meters across, fragments escaping into cis-lunar space being favored. Smaller fragments tend to be more rapidly decelerated than larger ones and are re-accreted by the Earth. The conditions under which Earth-ejected material might impact upon the Moon is additionally considered. It is found that for encounter speeds smaller than some 7 km/s, terrestrial meteorites might be expected to survive upon impact (that is they will not undergo shock melting) when encountering the Moon’s regolith. It is argued that terrestrial meteorites may well survive, with identifiable features (fusion crust and mineralogy), for long periods of time within the lunar regolith (a result recently vindicated through the discovery of terrestrial material – launched during the late heavy bombardment – contained within a lunar impact breccia #14321, collected during the Apollo 14 Moon landing mission). Further to this, the important role that terrestrial meteorites must have played in transporting microbial life to other potentially habitable locations within the solar system is discussed.},
 year = {2019}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Production of Terrestrial Meteorites – Moon Accretion and Lithopanspermia
AU  - Martin Beech
AU  - Mark Comte
AU  - Ian Coulson
Y1  - 2019/07/01
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11
T2  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
JF  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
JO  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2376-4686
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11
AB  - The conditions under which terrestrial, impact-derived ejecta can be launched into cis-lunar space is studied. A numerical code is developed in order to follow the ablation and deceleration conditions of material ejected from the Earth’s surface and outwards through the atmosphere. The deceleration filtering-effect imposed by Earth’s atmosphere results in multi-meter-sized, 5 to 20 meters across, fragments escaping into cis-lunar space being favored. Smaller fragments tend to be more rapidly decelerated than larger ones and are re-accreted by the Earth. The conditions under which Earth-ejected material might impact upon the Moon is additionally considered. It is found that for encounter speeds smaller than some 7 km/s, terrestrial meteorites might be expected to survive upon impact (that is they will not undergo shock melting) when encountering the Moon’s regolith. It is argued that terrestrial meteorites may well survive, with identifiable features (fusion crust and mineralogy), for long periods of time within the lunar regolith (a result recently vindicated through the discovery of terrestrial material – launched during the late heavy bombardment – contained within a lunar impact breccia #14321, collected during the Apollo 14 Moon landing mission). Further to this, the important role that terrestrial meteorites must have played in transporting microbial life to other potentially habitable locations within the solar system is discussed.
VL  - 7
IS  - 1
ER  -

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Author Information

Martin Beech

Campion College, Department of Astronomy, The University of Regina, Regina, Canada; Department of Physics, The University of Regina, Regina, Canada
Mark Comte

Department of Physics, The University of Regina, Regina, Canada
Ian Coulson

Department of Geology, The University of Regina, Regina, Canada

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APA Style

Martin Beech, Mark Comte, Ian Coulson. (2019). The Production of Terrestrial Meteorites – Moon Accretion and Lithopanspermia. American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 7(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11

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ACS Style

Martin Beech; Mark Comte; Ian Coulson. The Production of Terrestrial Meteorites – Moon Accretion and Lithopanspermia. Am. J. Astron. Astrophys. 2019, 7(1), 1-9. doi: 10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11

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AMA Style

Martin Beech, Mark Comte, Ian Coulson. The Production of Terrestrial Meteorites – Moon Accretion and Lithopanspermia. Am J Astron Astrophys. 2019;7(1):1-9. doi: 10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11,
  author = {Martin Beech and Mark Comte and Ian Coulson},
  title = {The Production of Terrestrial Meteorites – Moon Accretion and Lithopanspermia},
  journal = {American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics},
  volume = {7},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1-9},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajaa.20190701.11},
  abstract = {The conditions under which terrestrial, impact-derived ejecta can be launched into cis-lunar space is studied. A numerical code is developed in order to follow the ablation and deceleration conditions of material ejected from the Earth’s surface and outwards through the atmosphere. The deceleration filtering-effect imposed by Earth’s atmosphere results in multi-meter-sized, 5 to 20 meters across, fragments escaping into cis-lunar space being favored. Smaller fragments tend to be more rapidly decelerated than larger ones and are re-accreted by the Earth. The conditions under which Earth-ejected material might impact upon the Moon is additionally considered. It is found that for encounter speeds smaller than some 7 km/s, terrestrial meteorites might be expected to survive upon impact (that is they will not undergo shock melting) when encountering the Moon’s regolith. It is argued that terrestrial meteorites may well survive, with identifiable features (fusion crust and mineralogy), for long periods of time within the lunar regolith (a result recently vindicated through the discovery of terrestrial material – launched during the late heavy bombardment – contained within a lunar impact breccia #14321, collected during the Apollo 14 Moon landing mission). Further to this, the important role that terrestrial meteorites must have played in transporting microbial life to other potentially habitable locations within the solar system is discussed.},
 year = {2019}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Production of Terrestrial Meteorites – Moon Accretion and Lithopanspermia
AU  - Martin Beech
AU  - Mark Comte
AU  - Ian Coulson
Y1  - 2019/07/01
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11
T2  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
JF  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
JO  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2376-4686
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20190701.11
AB  - The conditions under which terrestrial, impact-derived ejecta can be launched into cis-lunar space is studied. A numerical code is developed in order to follow the ablation and deceleration conditions of material ejected from the Earth’s surface and outwards through the atmosphere. The deceleration filtering-effect imposed by Earth’s atmosphere results in multi-meter-sized, 5 to 20 meters across, fragments escaping into cis-lunar space being favored. Smaller fragments tend to be more rapidly decelerated than larger ones and are re-accreted by the Earth. The conditions under which Earth-ejected material might impact upon the Moon is additionally considered. It is found that for encounter speeds smaller than some 7 km/s, terrestrial meteorites might be expected to survive upon impact (that is they will not undergo shock melting) when encountering the Moon’s regolith. It is argued that terrestrial meteorites may well survive, with identifiable features (fusion crust and mineralogy), for long periods of time within the lunar regolith (a result recently vindicated through the discovery of terrestrial material – launched during the late heavy bombardment – contained within a lunar impact breccia #14321, collected during the Apollo 14 Moon landing mission). Further to this, the important role that terrestrial meteorites must have played in transporting microbial life to other potentially habitable locations within the solar system is discussed.
VL  - 7
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download