I'm helping a friend who's working on a science fiction novel, and the question has come up about how much meteor dust accumulates on the Earth. (The question is really focusing on the Moon: The Apollo seismometers were picking up something like 150 individually detectable impacts per year (plus the quakes), and below this was a constant noise
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I would expect the difference in gravitational pull to enter the equation. And possibly the fact that one side of the moon always faces the Earth. But these factors may be negligible in this case.
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Still, neither body has enough gravity to sweep out huge areas of space.
The Moon facing the Earth is part of a conundrum that has long perplexed selenologists. The other side of the Moon is very different. Much more cratered, and almost devoid of the lava "seas" that show so prominently on this side. Considering how far apart the two bodies are, it's hard to imagine that the Earth forms much of a shield. But still, the differences are there.
The crust is very different, too. Almost as though the Moon consists of two mismatched half-planets.
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The post got long, but I put up a new entry just for you:
http://level-head.livejournal.com/464086.html
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