With regard to the range of asteroid sized bodies, average body size is trending smaller owing to collisions. The solar system has been greatly depleted of larger bodies as compared to the original populations of planetary/asteroidal bodies. Collisions, by-in-large, produce multiple "smaller" objects which, over time, produce even smaller objects and so on. So large impacts "statistically" point back to a very early solar system with a greater proportion of larger objects. The impact itself is evidence of depletion.
In general, the more impacts visible on the surface, the relatively longer exposure that surface has had to impacts. An older surface that hasn't been renewed by tectonic/volcanic recycling will have more craters and a higher proportion of larger astroblemes. We date planetary surface geological activity/age using crater count and overlap statistics with crater sizes factored in.. Elton ----- Original Message ---- > From: Jonathan E. Dongell <jdong...@cox.net> > To: Ron Baalke <baa...@zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>; Meteorite Mailing List ><meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com> > Sent: Tue, October 19, 2010 9:41:26 PM > Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] The (Long) Weekend Warrior: Nine Moons, 62 > Hours >(Cassini) > > Ron, > I can understand why more impacts could be an indication of an older >satellite, > but could you explain why 'larger' impacts is also an indication of older, > as >well. > Thank you, in advance. > Jonathan Dongell > IMCA 3922 ______________________________________________ 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
