There are so many craters on the moon, so where did the meteorites that hit the moon go?

The craters on the lunar surface are basically formed by meteorite impacts. Grove Karl Gilbert proposed in 1893 that lunar craters were formed by asteroid impacts. Ralph Baldwin wrote in 1949 that the Moon's craters are primarily of shock origin. Around 1960, Gene Shoemaker revisited the claim.

Later studies have shown that the impact of atmospheric impacts or asteroids on the moon's large craters is the origin of almost all lunar craters, because the moon has no weathering, no matter how long ago a crater is not covered by the next crater, then it is Will keep forever!

The Von Karman impact crater in the Aikent Basin on the back of the moon is the Aikent impact crater with a diameter of nearly 2500KM. There are countless craters in it, and some of them can't even tell the edge!

Since the moon is not protected by an atmosphere like the earth, meteorites all directly hit the lunar surface without slowing down at all, and can reach 20 kilometers per second, thus directly exploding on the lunar surface.

The gravitational force of the moon is only one-sixth of that of the earth. Most of the meteorites split and flew out of the moon directly after the impact, becoming fragments and flying back to space, and some flew to the earth and became the lunar meteorites we picked up today.

Due to the huge shock wave generated by the impact, huge energy is released, and the extremely high temperature will melt or even vaporize the outer layers of some high-density meteorites and the materials on the lunar surface.

Part of it will splash at high speed under the action of the shock wave, scattered on the surface of the moon, the scattered dust will be absorbed by the gravity of the moon, and the hard core of the meteorite will directly penetrate the surface of the moon, knocking the moon out of a big hole, followed by the meteorite The molten material in the crater fills the large hole, and after gradual cooling, a crater with a slightly raised bottom is formed.

Why are there more craters on the far side of the moon than the front?

There is an asteroid belt between the orbit of Mars and the orbit of Jupiter outside the orbit of the earth. Whether it is the meteorite that fell to the earth or the meteorite that fell to the moon, they are basically asteroids from the asteroid belt.

The tidal force of the earth locks the moon, so that the moon always faces the earth. Because of the huge gravitational influence of the earth, most space meteorites must first pass through the earth's gravitational field, and some asteroids on the front of the moon are captured by the earth, which lowers the front of the moon. The probability of asteroids falling, causing meteorites to hit the front of the moon is much lower than the back, resulting in the phenomenon that the back of the moon has more craters than the front.

It is said that the moon protects the earth from being hit by meteorites, but it is actually the earth that protects the moon. The earth has suffered a lot of asteroid impacts, but most of them are consumed by the earth's atmosphere, forming meteors or meteor showers!