(Source: Ames Research Center) The inner Solar System's biggest known collision was the moon-forming giant impact between a large protoplanet and the proto-Earth. Kilometer-sized fragments from this impact hit main belt asteroids at much higher velocities than typical main belt collisions, heating the surface and leaving behind a permanent record of the impact event. A team of NASA funded researchers modeled the evolution of giant impact debris and analyzed these ancient impact heat signatures in stony meteorites to conclude that pieces of the Giant Impact did indeed strike the asteroid belt. The team's work will appear in the April 2015 issue of the journal Science. The team was led by...
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