Migration of bodies ejected from the Earth and the Moon

TL;DR

This paper models the trajectories and collision probabilities of bodies ejected from Earth and Moon, revealing how ejection velocity influences their likelihood of collision with planetary bodies over hundreds of millions of years.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of ejection velocities and angles affecting collision probabilities of bodies from Earth and Moon, offering new insights into planetary impact risks.

Findings

Collision probability of ejected bodies varies with ejection velocity.

Most bodies ejected below 11.3 km/s fall back to Earth.

Bodies ejected from the Moon have significantly lower collision probabilities with Earth.

Abstract

This study analyzes the motion of bodies ejected from the Earth or the Moon. We studied the ejection of bodies from several points on the Earth's surface, as well as from the most far point of the Moon from the Sun. Different velocities and angles of ejection of bodies were considered. The dynamical lifetimes of bodies reached a few hundred million years. Over the entire considered time interval, the values of the probability of a collision of a body ejected from the Earth with the Earth were approximately 0.3, 0.2, and 0.15-0.2 at an ejection velocity vej equaled to 11.5, 12, and 14 km/s, respectively. At vej<11.3 km/s, most of the ejected bodies fell back onto the Earth. The total number of bodies delivered to the Earth and Venus probably did not differ much. The probabilities of collisions of bodies with Mercury and Mars usually did not exceed 0.1 and 0.02, respectively. At vej>11.5 km/s, the probability of a collision of a body ejected from the Earth with the Moon was about 15-35 times less than that with the Earth, and it was about 0.01. The probability of a collision with the Earth for a body ejected from the Moon moving in its present orbit was about 0.3-0.32, 0.2-0.22, and 0.1-0.14 at vej=2.5 km/s, vej=5 km/s, and at 12<vej<16.4 km/s, respectively.