Ancient asteroid breakup may have fed Earth a prolonged bombardment window
A breakup of the Eulalia asteroid family about 800 million years ago shattered a carbon-rich body in the main belt, sending fragments into the inner solar system through Jupiter’s 3:1 resonance and, over 100–150 million years, via the Yarkovsky effect. This likely increased impacts on Earth, the Moon, and Mars, with the lunar crater record and a period of global cooling and biosphere changes coinciding, though a causal link remains unproven and needs further study.