Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Moon's heavily cratered far-side. The origin of the Moon is usually explained by a Mars-sized body striking the Earth, creating a debris ring that eventually collected into a single natural satellite, the Moon, but there are a number of variations on this giant-impact hypothesis, as well as alternative explanations, and research continues into how the Moon came to be formed.
Artist's depiction of a collision between two planetary bodies. Such an impact between Earth and a Mars-sized object likely formed the Moon.. The giant-impact hypothesis, sometimes called the Theia Impact, is an astrogeology hypothesis for the formation of the Moon first proposed in 1946 by Canadian geologist Reginald Daly.
As one of Earth’s most familiar sights in the sky, the moon has inspired billions of people to gaze upward in wonder. ... Always, there was a standout mystery: how did the moon form and find a ...
A view of the rotating Earth and the far side of the Moon as the Moon passes on its orbit in between the observing DSCOVR satellite and Earth. The Earth and the Moon form the Earth–Moon satellite system with a shared center of mass, or barycenter. This barycenter is 1,700 km (1,100 mi) (about a quarter of Earth's radius) beneath the Earth's ...
An old theory about how Earth’s moon was formed is getting a second look.
The Earth and the Moon were long thought to be virtually identical in composition. Now we know they are not.
The Earth and Moon formed at the same time when the protoplanetary disk accreted; The Theia-impact scenario described above; The lunar rock samples retrieved by Apollo astronauts were found to be very similar in composition to Earth's crust, and so were likely removed from Earth in some violent event. [14] [18] [19]
The Moon formed after a collision 4.5 billion years ago between the young Earth and a Mars-sized object, called Theia - but what happened next? Mystery of how moon formed could be solved at last ...