For 300 million years there was a sudden surge of impacts in the solar system. Nobody is certain how it happened (and there is debate that it happened at all) but there is substantial evidence to support it. As the catastrophe series of posts focuses on the effects to Earth, the Late Heavy Bombardment will be seen from the point of view of Earth.

many of the craters across the solar system date from this event – one of titanic upheaval across the solar system. (image credit: NASA, NASA Blueshift)

Catastrophe fact-file:

Catastrophe: Late Heavy Bombardment

When: 4.1 – 3.8 billion years ago

What happened?: multiple catastrophic impacts. Life on earth may have been restarted several times.

Result?: Lots of impact craters all over the solar system.

Again?: Extremely unlikely, as the reservoir of asteroids/comets is a lot less than what it was.

The four gas giants were a lot…