Re: Boiling off carbon
> you would expect that whatever deposited it here could plausibly also deposit it on the Moon
Earth has been covered for some time with carbon-based lifeforms, which would explain the major part of the carbon we find around here in some form or another.
Nothing similar on the Moon though, and while I guess some complicated isotope counting might allow to differentiate between local biological and stellar carbon on Earth, I think the sheer amount of biological carbon is bound to distort the issue: How do we know how much carbon is normal for a larger body of the inner solar system and how much is not, considering they all went AFAIK through a "hot ball of molten rock" phase, something no asteroid has?
There is apparently a lot of carbon on Venus, and since Venus is quite unlikely to bear carbon-based lifeforms, it might be considered the carbon standard for a bigger, once-boiled inner solar system body. The Moon has clearly a lot less carbon compared to Venus, which might indeed amount to what a twice-boiled body would have left.
Yes, that's pub science. So sue me!... :o)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
