I see, but the other side of the moon does look a lot more heavily cratered than that "shielded" by Earth..
----------- -Melanie IMCA: 2975 eBay: metmel2775 Known on SkyRock Cafe as SpaceCollector09 I eat, sleep and breath meteorites 24/7. ----- Original Message ---- From: Rob Matson <mojave_meteori...@cox.net> To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Tue, September 7, 2010 10:46:12 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Shielding of the Moon by earth Hi Melanie/List, The side of the Moon that faces the Earth is only ~barely~ shielded by the earth compared to the side facing away from Earth. In fact, I would be surprised if the difference is even detectable as far as cratering density. From the Moon's surface, the earth subtends about 1.9 degrees, so a Full Earth looks over 14 times larger (in "area") than does a Full Moon from earth. While that may seem large, the amount of angular space shielded by the earth is tiny -- about one part in 7000 for any portion of the lunar hemisphere with a view of the earth. In other words, square mile for square mile, if the earth had the Moon's vacuum, its surface would get hit just as often as the Moon's. --Rob ______________________________________________ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list ______________________________________________ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list