HACKER Q&A
📣 keepamovin

Is it possible to estimate the age of the moon from its crater count?


If we know the approximate rate of impacts (and can cross check across the rate of different sizes with the count of craters of different sizes), shouldn't we be able to get a good picture of its age?

How does this correspond to the age estimate through other methods? :)


  👤 gregjor Accepted Answer ✓
We probably can't know the rate of impacts, or the sizes of the objects that impacted the moon. Assuming the moon had no impact craters at some point and then accumulated them, the missing piece of data needed turns out to be: how old is it? That's implicit in the "rate" part of your hypothesis -- rate includes a duration of time.

Fortunately scientists have found other ways to determine the age of the moon.

https://www.space.com/35291-moon-age-pinned-down.html


👤 gus_massa
IIRC we have done that, but in the (long) past there were more asteroids, so the calculation is more complicated.