Exchange of meteorites between the terrestrial planets and the Moon

TL;DR

This study models how meteorites are exchanged among terrestrial planets and the Moon, analyzing ejection velocities and collision probabilities to understand interplanetary meteorite transfer.

Contribution

It provides a detailed quantitative analysis of collision probabilities and ejection velocities for meteorites exchanged between planets and the Moon.

Findings

Collision probabilities vary with ejection velocity and planetary body.

Most meteorites ejected from Mercury fall back onto Mercury.

Exchange of meteorites between Earth, Venus, and Mars is significant.

Abstract

The evolution of the orbits of bodies ejected from the Earth, Moon, Mercury and Mars was studied. At ejection velocities about 12-14 km/s, the fraction of bodies ejected from the Earth that fall back onto the Earth was about 0.15-0.25. The total number of bodies ejected from the Earth and delivered to the Earth and Venus probably did not differ much. The probability of collisions of bodies ejected from the Earth with the Moon moving in its present orbit was of the order of 0.01. Probabilities of collisions of bodies ejected from the Earth with Mercury were about 0.02-0.08 at ejection velocities greater than 11.3 km/s. The probabilities of collisions of bodies ejected from the Earth with Mars did not exceed 0.025. For the ejection of bodies from the present orbit of the Moon, probabilities of collisions of ejected bodies with planets were similar to those ejected from the Earth if we consider smaller ejection velocities from the Moon than from the Earth. The probability of a collision of a body ejected from Mars with Mars usually did not exceed 0.04 at an ejection velocity greater than 5.3 km/s. The fraction of bodies ejected from Mars and collided with Mercury was typically less than 0.08. Probabilities of collisions of bodies ejected from Mars with the Earth and Venus were about 0.1-0.2 (each) at an ejection velocity between 5.05 and 10 km/s. Most of bodies ejected from Mercury fall back onto Mercury. Probabilities of collisions of bodies ejected from Mercury with the Earth typically did not exceed 0.02 and 0.1 at an ejection velocity less than 8 km/s and 15 km/s, respectively. The fraction of bodies ejected from Mercury and collided with Venus was greater than that with the Earth typically by an order of magnitude. Probabilities of collisions of bodies with Venus were about 0.1-0.3 at a velocity of ejection from Mercury between 4.3 and 10 km/s.