combsbt
Jedi Master
Q: (L) When and how did planet earth acquire its moon?
A: Was caused by the regular passage of a large comet cluster which caused a gravitational disruption allowing a large chunk of the original earth's surface, which was somewhat less solid at that point in space/time, to break away from the main body and assume a locked in orbit around the main body.
_http://news.discovery.com/space/an-earth-moon-paternity-test-120411.html
The idea here is that the "mainstream view" is that the Earth was hit by a Mars-sized proto planet and the collision caused the formation of the moon. The studies of the mineral composition of the moon suggest that there was no impact, and all of the moon material is from earth.
The article claims that
A: Was caused by the regular passage of a large comet cluster which caused a gravitational disruption allowing a large chunk of the original earth's surface, which was somewhat less solid at that point in space/time, to break away from the main body and assume a locked in orbit around the main body.
_http://news.discovery.com/space/an-earth-moon-paternity-test-120411.html
The idea here is that the "mainstream view" is that the Earth was hit by a Mars-sized proto planet and the collision caused the formation of the moon. The studies of the mineral composition of the moon suggest that there was no impact, and all of the moon material is from earth.
The article claims that
These results threaten to send planetary scientists back to the drawing board in search of a plausible theory for the origin of the moon, but there are no satisfactory alternative scenarios for the moon's formation.