Synonyms
Keywords
Asteroids, comets, gas planets, impact craters, impact process, meteorites, Moon, small bodies, solar system dynamics
Definition
The term Late Heavy Bombardment (or LHB) corresponds to an elevated frequency of collisions that affected the inner Solar System between 4.0 and 3.8 billion years ago. The Earth preserved no trace of these major impacts, but they can be found on the highly cratered surface of the Moon and other planets such as Mars, or in the age of the impact melt measured on meteorites originating from the asteroid belt. The LHB forms either the slowly decreasing tail end of planetary accretion or a localized cataclysmic event, perhaps triggered by a readjustment of the orbits of the large gas planets long after the formation of the Solar System.
Overview
Origin and Duration of the LHB
The current stratigraphic timescale places the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) period in the beginning of the Archean (in the Eoarchean Era), coeval, or...
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References and Further Reading
Cohen BA, Swindle TD, Kring DA (2000) Support for the lunar cataclysm hypothesis from lunar meteorite impact melt ages. Science 290:1754–1756
Culler TS, Becker TA, Muller RA, Renne PR (2000) Lunar impact history from 40Ar/39Ar dating of glass spherules. Science 287:1785–1788
Gomes R, Levison HF, Tsiganis K, Morbidelli A (2005) Origin of the cataclysmic Late Heavy Bombardment period of the terrestrial planets. Nature 435:466–469
Hartmann WK, Ryder G, Dones L, Grinspoon D (2000) The time-dependent intense bombardment of primordial Earth/Moon system. In: Canup RM, Righter K (eds) Origin of the Earth and Moon. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp 493–512
Koeberl C (2004) The late heavy bombardment in the inner solar system. Earth Moon Planet 92:79–87
Kring DA (2003) Environmental Consequences of Impact Cratering Events as a function of Ambient Conditions on Earth. Astrobiology 3:133–152
Kring DA, Cohen BA (2002) Cataclysmic bombardment throughout the inner solar system 3.9–4.0 Ga. J Geophys Res 107(E2):4-1–4-6. doi:10.1029/2001JE001529
Morbidelli A, Levison HF, Tsiganis K, Gomes R (2005) Chaotic capture of Jupiter's Trojan asteroids in the early Solar System. Nature 435:462–465
Ryder G (1990) Lunar samples, lunar accretion and the early bombardment of the Moon. Eos Trans Am Geophys Union 71:313–323
Ryder G, Koeberl C, Mojzsis SJ (2000) Heavy bombardment on the Earth at 3.85: the search for petrographical and geochemical evidence. In: Canup RM, Righter K (eds) Origin of the Earth and Moon. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp 475–492
Stoeffler D, Ryder G (2001) Stratigraphy and isotopic ages of lunar geologic units: chronological standard for the inner solar system. In: The evolution of Mars. International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland, pp 7–53. Space Sci Rev 96:1–4
Tsiganis K, Gomes R, Morbidelli A, Levison HF (2005) Origin of the orbital architecture of the giant planets of the Solar System. Nature 435:459–461
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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Claeys, P., Morbidelli, A. (2011). Late Heavy Bombardment. In: Gargaud, M., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11274-4_869
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11274-4_869
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