Impact origin of the Moon
A few years after the Apollo flights to the Moon, it became clear that all of the existing theories on the origin of the Moon would not satisfy the growing body of constraints which appeared with the data gathered by the Apollo flights. About the same time, researchers began to realize that the inner (terrestrial) planets were not born quietly -- all had evidences of impacts on their surfaces. This fact reinforced the idea that the planets had formed by the accumulation of planetesimals. Since the Earth`s moon is unique among the terrestrial planets, a few researchers realized that perhaps the Moon originated in a singular event; an event that was quite probable, but not so probable that one would expect all the terrestrial planets to have a large moon. And thus was born the idea that a giant impact formed the Moon. Impacts would be common in the early solar system; perhaps a really large impact of two almost fully formed planets of disparate sizes would lead to material orbiting the proto-earth, a proto-moon. This idea remained to be tested. Using a relatively new, but robust, method of doing the hydrodynamics of the collision (Smoothed-Particle Hydrodynamics), the author and his colleagues (W. Benz, Univ. of Arizona, and A.G.W. Cameron, Harvard College Obs.) did a large number of collision simulations on a supercomputer. The author found two major scenarios which would result in the formation of the Moon. The first was direct formation; a moon-sized object is boosted into orbit by gravitational torques. The second is when the orbiting material forms a disk, which, with subsequent evolution can form the Moon. In either case the physical and chemical properties of the newly formed Moon would very neatly satisfy the physical and chemical constraints of the current Moon. Also, in both scenarios the surface of the Earth would be quite hot after the collision. This aspect remains to be explored.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 307952
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-98-2786; CONF-980983-; ON: DE99001664; TRN: AHC29905%%129
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Cosmos, earth and environment conference, Lleida (Spain), Sep 1998; Other Information: PBD: [1998]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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