While Earth and the Moon both have been struck by cosmic debris, Earth's active geology and atmosphere contribute to the erasing of impact craters over time, influencing the planet's surface appearance and even the evolution of life.
The reason why we don't see as many craters on Earth as on the Moon is due to various geological and atmospheric processes. Earth's active geology, primarily through plate tectonics and volcanism, continuously recycles the planet's crust, which over time erases the evidence of past impact events.
Additionally, Earth's atmosphere protects it by causing smaller cosmic debris to burn up before they can strike the surface as meteors, commonly referred to as shooting stars. However, larger impacts that have formed craters several kilometers in diameter, while more common on the Moon, have occurred on Earth too. Over time, these craters on Earth are worn away or altered by natural forces such as weathering, erosion, and vegetation growth, leaving fewer visible signs compared to the Moon, which lacks an atmosphere and significant geological activity to alter its surface.
Furthermore, recent scientific studies have shown that these impacts have influenced the evolution of life on Earth, with some events even being implicated in mass extinctions like the one that occurred 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period.