Why so much cratere on the moon and not on the earth?

hi,

it's a question that i ask to myself oftenly, i did some research on that and what i found is that there is more than 150 cratere on earth source and more than 300.000 on the moon and this just for the visible face. source
( sorry the linx are in french )

This seems weird to me because the moon is smaller than earth so, how is this possible?
Does it was habited before and an "world war" happened on it and than all have been destroy even her atmosphere?
Is there really a base inside and all this cratere are just bomb's impact launch from aliens trying to destroy it?
It is possible that aliens could control the moon to protect earth from meteorites?
A mix of all that?
Or there is nothing but me making fairy tales in my head?

I'm not sure about the credibility of those sources so if i'm wrong with crater's number fell free to correct me!!!





[edit on 28-11-2007 by ufopunx]

Simple answere is millions of years of erosion. There is no rain or wind on the moon as far as I know, thus things have never changed all these years. Also oceans and vegetation hide many craters.

We've got an atmosphere which stops most impacts, because the moon doesn't it's left with lots of craters.

Everything that the earth has, the moon does not.

Plate tectonics, oceans, weather patterns, a more dense atmosphere (according to some in the camp of John Lear the moon does in fact have atmo)

Erosion.

Basically the earth naturally 'heals' the scars of impacts because it is still a living planet. The moon is 'dead', essentially.

And, with a thick atmosphere, a greater number of impacting objects simply burn up before reaching the ground on Earth. Also, of those that do make it through the atmosphere intact, though much smaller than when they first entered it, many of these are bound to be water impacts due to the ratio of water to land mass.

Thanx all for your answer.
Then i guess i was making fairy tales in my head.....
I've read those explanations before but it seemed strange to me so i posted here.
i knew that the vegetation could cover them but a so big difference looked weird
thanx again.

[edit on 28-11-2007 by ufopunx]

Originally posted by NGC2736
And, with a thick atmosphere, a greater number of impacting objects simply burn up before reaching the ground on Earth. Also, of those that do make it through the atmosphere intact, though much smaller than when they first entered it, many of these are bound to be water impacts due to the ratio of water to land mass.

Yup. And that goes against yet another claim by John Lear that the Moon has an atmosphere

That's the best thing you can do is ask question and use your imagination. And I like all the answers given here by good people but instead of just taking their word on your questions you should research it yourself. I'm not saying they're right or wrong, but you should feel what's right after researching it yourself.
Here's a few good sites to look at.

Space.com

The Moon

There's plenty more for you to find on the internet.