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<p>The Earth-Moon system has been experiencing impacts from asteroids and comets for billions of years. The Moon, as an airless body, has preserved a distinct record of these events in form of impact craters and ejecta deposits, offering valuable insights into the impact history and surface evolution of the Moon. In addition to these ancient impact records, future asteroid impacts offer a complementary and largely unexplored opportunity for lunar and planetary science, enabling direct observations of the impact process and subsequent evolution. With human lunar exploration entering an era of sustained presence, e.g., lunar research station and human return, we propose a new concept to probe the lunar subsurface and interior by investigating the future asteroid impacts in real time. This can be achieved by integrating (1) ground- and space-based telescopes, (2) lunar-based seismometers and rovers, and (3) <i>in-situ</i> investigations around the impact sites. A promising opportunity arises with the possible lunar impact of the 60-m-sized asteroid 2024 YR4 in 2032 (with an initial impact probability of 4.3%, but now ruled out), an event of once-in-ten-thousand-years rarity. Comprehensive observations of such events would greatly enhance our understanding of the Moon’s structure and evolution, and have significant implications for the future lunar resource utilization and planetary defense missions.</p>

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Probing the Moon from future asteroid impacts: A review

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月25日

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  • Yifei Jiao,
  • Bin Cheng,
  • Hexi Baoyin

摘要

The Earth-Moon system has been experiencing impacts from asteroids and comets for billions of years. The Moon, as an airless body, has preserved a distinct record of these events in form of impact craters and ejecta deposits, offering valuable insights into the impact history and surface evolution of the Moon. In addition to these ancient impact records, future asteroid impacts offer a complementary and largely unexplored opportunity for lunar and planetary science, enabling direct observations of the impact process and subsequent evolution. With human lunar exploration entering an era of sustained presence, e.g., lunar research station and human return, we propose a new concept to probe the lunar subsurface and interior by investigating the future asteroid impacts in real time. This can be achieved by integrating (1) ground- and space-based telescopes, (2) lunar-based seismometers and rovers, and (3) in-situ investigations around the impact sites. A promising opportunity arises with the possible lunar impact of the 60-m-sized asteroid 2024 YR4 in 2032 (with an initial impact probability of 4.3%, but now ruled out), an event of once-in-ten-thousand-years rarity. Comprehensive observations of such events would greatly enhance our understanding of the Moon’s structure and evolution, and have significant implications for the future lunar resource utilization and planetary defense missions.