Mars History Adds Credence to Late Heavy Bombardment Theory
SwRI-Led Team Discovers Lull in Mars’ Giant Impact History
“The new results reveal that Mars’ impact history closely parallels the bombardment histories we’ve inferred for the Moon, the asteroid belt, and the planet Mercury,” Bottke said. “We refer to the period for the later impacts as the ‘Late Heavy Bombardment.’ The new results add credence to this somewhat controversial theory. However, the lull itself is an important period in the evolution of Mars and other planets. We like to refer to this lull as the ‘doldrums.‘”
I find the LHB theory interesting, especially because one of the proposed causes was changes in the orbital positions and distances of the outer planets. It might mean that the ice giants (especially Uranus, whose satellite system wasn’t disrupted by the apparent capture of a giant asteroid like Triton) might have relics of life in a much warmer part of the solar system.