The Inner-Solar System Impact Record: Lunar, Terrestrial-Planet, and Asteroid Size-Frequency Data Comparison

Abstract

The terrestrial planets, the Earth's Moon, Mars, Venus, and Mercury show similarities in their production crater size-frequency distribution characteristics. The recent results from the Galileo mission flybys of the main belt asteroids Gaspra and Ida yield information on the crater-size frequency distrbution in the source region of the bodies largely responsible for cratering the inner solar system planets. The purpose of this paper is to review the wealth of cratering data which have been gathered for the moon and for the terrestrial planets in combination with the latest results for Gaspra and Ida. This is done with a new model, taking into account major parameters controlling the cratering process: gravity and strength of a target body as well as the average velocity of impacting projectiles.