Science. 2000 Dec 1;290(5497):1677. doi: 10.1126/science.290.5497.1677.
Lunar meteorite analyses reported on page 1754 of this issue reveal a burst of impacts on the moon 3.9 billion years ago and nothing before that; the cosmochemists conclude that the moon and Earth endured a storm of impacts 100 times heavier than anything immediately before or after. Such a lunar cataclysm would have scarred the moon with the great basins that now shape the man in the moon. On Earth, the same bombardment would have intervened in the evolution of life, perhaps forcing it to start all over again.
这一期的 1754 页上报告了对月球陨石的分析结果，表明在 39 亿年前月球曾经历过一次大规模的撞击事件，在此之前没有发生过其他撞击事件。宇宙化学家据此推断，月球和地球曾遭遇过一场比此前或此后任何一次都要猛烈 100 倍的撞击风暴。这样的月球灾难可能会在月球上留下巨大的盆地，而现在我们在“月之暗面”中看到的就是这些巨大的盆地。如果同样的撞击发生在地球上，可能会打断生命的演化过程，甚至迫使生命重新开始。
