Why does the moon have so many craters when Earth doesn’t have, even though Earth’s gravity is stronger and it should be the one attracting the comets?

Question

Why does the moon have so many craters when Earth doesn’t have, even though Earth’s gravity is stronger and it should be the one attracting the comets?

In: 2798

Answer 1

Earth has a thick atmosphere. This causes two things. First, astral debris that falls to earth experiences a ton of friction on the way down that causes most to burn up and splits many others into smaller pieces. Second, the impact craters of the few meteorites that do hit earth get covered up quickly as atmospheric effects like wind and rain cause erosion and sediment deposition.

There’s actually a *massive* crater on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, which is thought to be where the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs landed, but you’d never know it just by looking at it. You can only see it by mapping out the rock layers.