Moon rocks reach a lab, and their clocks seem to point to the same crash-filled age. Imagine walking into a house where the clocks all stopped together. Something big must have happened.
Many Apollo samples point to impacts around 3.9 billion years ago. The classic idea, the Late Heavy Bombardment, says falling rubble had begun to thin out, then suddenly surged. Earth would have been in the firing line too.
But now look at where the samples came from. Apollo crews landed on the Moon's near side. The huge Imbrium impact could have thrown rock across all those sites. You might be dating one crash again and again.
There is a way to widen the search. Pieces knocked off the Moon sometimes fall to Earth as lunar meteorites. Their impact dates spread out more. Samples brought back from the far side also make the neat story harder to hold together.
Scientists still argue about whether a late spike happened. A long, steady decline in impacts can explain much of the record. The chapter follows that challenge without claiming the case is closed. Look up at the Moon: the scars remain, even when their clocks tell different stories.
