Earth’s moon could have formed within hours from a lump of debris

TheWhen, according to the prevailing theory, the Earth was struck by a huge body the size of Mars billions of years ago, it is called clothesThe debris from the massive impact eventually became what is now our moon. How long it took to form the satellite thereafter has always been a matter of debate. Was it months or years? Turns out it was probably only a few hours.

New simulation of research center souls From NASA theorizes that the moon may have formed in the time it takes to watch a good science fiction movie.

Banner photo: A screenshot from the simulation showing a stream of ejected material, created by a giant impact, that combines to form the body that will become the moon. (Dr. Jacob Kejris/NASA Ames)

According to Jacob Kegerreis, a postdoctoral researcher at the Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and lead author of the study (link below):

This opens up a whole new set of potential starting points for the Moon’s evolution. We embarked on this project without knowing exactly what the results of this high-resolution simulation would be. So in addition to revealing that standard accuracy can give you misleading results, what was even more exciting was that the new results could include a satellite in a lunar-like orbit.

The simulations used in this research are among the most detailed simulations ever designed for a study of this type, and operate with the highest accuracy of any model used to study the origins of the Moon or other massive impacts. This additional computing power showed that low-resolution simulations can miss important aspects of collisions, allowing researchers to observe new mechanisms.

Understanding the moon’s origins requires using what we know about it: its mass, its orbit, and careful analysis of lunar rock samples to generate scenarios that could lead to the moon’s current state.

Some properties, such as its mass and orbit, are well explained by prevailing theories, but there have been important exceptions. Why the composition of the Moon is so similar to that of the Earth has remained a large mystery.

Scientists can determine the composition of a substance by analyzing its signature isotopes, which provides a chemical clue as to how and where the object was created. The isotopic signatures of the lunar samples that the researchers were able to analyze in the laboratory are remarkably similar to those found in rocks on Earth. This indicates that much of the lunar material comes from Earth.

In previous scenarios in which Thea was sprayed into orbit and mixed with a small amount of Earth matter, scientists were unlikely to notice such stark similarities, unless Theia was “isotopic” similar to Earth, a highly unlikely coincidence.

Other theories have been proposed to explain compositional similarities, such as synestia نموذج modelAccordingly, the moon would have formed inside a whirlwind of vaporized rock after the impact. However, these hypotheses struggle to explain the moon’s current orbit.

This faster one-step formation theory provides a more accurate and precise explanation. It can also provide new ways to solve other unsolved puzzles. The creation within an hour scenario can explain the moon’s tilted orbit and thin crust by placing it in a wide orbit with a partially melted interior, making it one of the most intriguing explanations for the moon’s origins.

To determine which of these theories is correct, it will be necessary to obtain more lunar samples during future missions of Artemis program from NASA. As scientists access samples from other regions of the Moon and regions deeper under its surface, they will be able to compare real-world data with these simulated scenarios and what they reveal about the Moon’s evolution over the billions of years of its existence.

The universe is full of collisions, and influences are necessary for the formation and evolution of planetary bodies. We know that the influence with Thea and other changes throughout Earth’s history have contributed to our planet’s ability to gather materials for life. The more accurately scientists simulate and analyze the forces acting on these collisions, the better prepared we will be to understand how a planet could evolve to become as habitable as Earth.

For Vincent Ike, a researcher at Durham University and co-author of the study:

The more we know how the moon appeared, the more we discover the evolution of the planet Earth. Their histories are intertwined and can find echoes in the histories of other planets that have changed due to similar or completely different collisions.

The study, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters: The immediate origin of the moon as a satellite after the collision View it on NASA’s website: The collision may have formed the moon within hours, simulations reveal.