UNIVERSE
THE SUN
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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The Moon rarely gets impacted by meteorites.
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The Earth’s atmosphere protects it from impacts.
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The Moon’s gravity attracts more meteorites than Earth’s.
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The Earth rotates on its axis more quickly than the Moon.
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Detailed explanation-1: -Because of tectonics, the surface of Earth is recycled many times throughout its long history. As a result, very few rocks on Earth are as old as the rocks on the Moon. The Moon has not had tectonics for billions of years. That’s a lot more time for craters to form and stay put.
Detailed explanation-2: -The surface of the Moon is covered with craters because the Moon doesn’t have an atmosphere to protect it from incoming asteroids and debris, and it has no plate tectonics that would shift the surface and cause craters to disappear over time.
Detailed explanation-3: -One reason the moon has craters because it gets hit by objects, small pieces of rocks that come from outer space. These are pieces of asteroids, comets that are flying around in the solar system. When they hit the surface, there’s an impact. The moon has no atmosphere, and so even a tiny rock will create a crater.
Detailed explanation-4: -Regions of a surface with a higher crater density are older than regions with a lower crater density, and a surface like Io’s, with no observable craters, is extremely young and implies current geologic activity. Crater size distributions can also be used to estimate the absolute age of a surface.
Detailed explanation-5: -Gilbert pointed out, the floors of lunar craters are generally below the height of their surrounding area, whereas on Earth the floors of volcanic craters are generally higher than their surroundings.
Detailed explanation-6: -Which of the following statements is NOT a reason why meteorite impact craters are much more common on the Moon than on the Earth? The Earth’s crust is very strong and so it is difficult for meteorite impact craters to form there.