How was the moon formed? Five strongest theories about its origin

the moonthe orb that we can easily see in sky, day and night accompanies us and revolves around us for more than 4,000 million years. When we see the moon in the sky, it looks so old and beautiful that it seems that it has always been there. But,How it was formed Originally our natural satellite that revolve around Earth An average distance of about 385,000 km?

with Its diameter is just under 3,500 km And a surface full of craters, this rocky body betrays scientists by searching through it different theories.

In addition to being an abnormally large satellite, the Moon orbits our planet in a range somewhat inclined orbit In relation to our equator, in addition there are noticeable differences in chemical composition and physical composition. And although the size of the planets is several thousand times more massive than their satellites, the mass of the Earth is not more than eighty times the mass of the Moon.

Until two decades ago, there were three theories proposed to explain the origin of the Moon, and none of them were completely accepted or rejected. Later, two more solid came, but at some point also questioned.

1- Separation: According to the so-called fission model, the Earth originally formed on its own but rotates very quickly, rotating around itself once every four hours. This causes rapid rotation A piece separated from the Earth, and in turn split, the Moon and the neighboring planet Mars arose. One problem with this model is that it cannot explain the characteristics of the Moon’s orbit.

It may interest you: The Moon was once part of the Earth, according to new scientific evidence

2- Joint birth: Perhaps the most natural model, the co-birth, suggests that the Moon and Earth They were born at the same time as two separate beings. But this theory cannot explain, among other things, why the Moon lacks an iron core while the Earth has a core.

3- Capture model: The third theory says so Both bodies were formed separately at the beginning of the solar system and the moon, when approaching the Earth, was captured by our planet. However, the conditions for this capture to occur are very difficult to meet, and this model cannot explain the Moon’s low iron content either.

4- Significant effect: The results of a new study of moon rocks brought back to Earth by NASA more than 50 years ago provide evidence of the existence of new theory which states that The moon was created after another planet collided with the small planet Earth Then it was melted billions of years ago.

Let’s take a deeper look at giant impact theory In this it is expected that when Earth was a small planet It was just starting to take shape It was hit by another nascent planet called Theia, located near its orbit. The collision caused the planets to temporarily separate into balls of gas, magma, and chemical elements before re-forming into the bodies we know today as the Earth and the Moon. Simon and Gargano’s research confirms this theory further.

“There is a huge difference between the modern elemental makeup of the Earth and the Moon and we wanted to find out why. Now, we know that the Moon was very different from the beginning, probably due to”giant effectThe NASA planetary scientist said, Justin SimonWho is he and his fellow graduate Tony GarganoLed by the research, both from the Department of Astronomical Materials Research and Exploration Science at Johnson Space Center in Houston, the findings were recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers focused on looking at the amount of Types of chlorine found in rocks. They chose this element because it is volatile, which means it evaporates at relatively low temperatures, and tracing it is useful for understanding the formation of the planet. Chlorine exists in two abundant and stable forms: light and heavy. These terms are used to describe chemicals that contain Differences in that atomic structurealso called isotopes.

What they found is that Moon rocks contain a higher concentration of heavy chlorine, while Earth rocks are richer in light chlorine. Heaviness tends to resist change and stay in place, but light is more reactive and sensitive to different forces. In the In the giant-impact model, spots on Earth and the Moon initially contained a mixture of light and heavy chlorine. But, as the planets came back together, the larger Earth dominated the development processes and attracted the lighter chlorine that evaporates more easily, leaving the Moon without light chlorine and other elements that are more easily evaporated. Based on the measurements the scientists took, it appears that this is exactly what happened.

5- Several effects: Another theory suggests that It is possible that the moon was formed by a series of large impacts, Rather than being the result of a single giant collision, which explains why it is mostly made up of Earth-like matter rather than a mixture of Earth and other planetary debris. These impacts would have put millions of tons of debris into orbit that would have ended up joining together and forming the orbiting satellite.

In a single giant crash scenario, either most of the material formed The moon came from Earth, not the probe (the object it collided with) or the composition of both were identical. “Both scenarios are possible but unlikely,” says a study published in the journal in 2017. natural earth sciencesBecause unlike what happens with Earth and the Moon, the meteorites and asteroids that populate the Solar System vary greatly in their chemical makeup.

It may interest you: NASA explains the origin of the moon through the collision of two planets

A team of experts from Weizmann Institute of ScienceFrom IsraelAnd from Imperial College From London He performed many numerical simulations of large planetary bodies that affected Earth during the formation period. In this simulation, the impacts produced disks of debris, most of which would consist of mostly ground material.

After each collision, disks of debris accumulate to form a young moon that the authors suggest could have merged with the growing moon. According to the study It took about 20 of these small moon-forming impacts to end up forming Earth’s satellite. The authors suggest that these types of influences between Earth and other large celestial bodies, capable of forming small moons, were “common enough” in the inner solar system to form a moon.

Today’s theory brutal effect Happened more than 4000 million years ago is that More consensus Born about how the moon was formed. This month, experts supported the arguments of this theory in a new searchin which they made a file Highly detailed computer simulation who made it Institute of Computational Cosmology at Durham University. this new”Instant Satellite Scenario‘, means that the proto-moon was less molten during its formation and may indicate that much of it formed immediately after a giant collision with Earth.

This theory is for faster formation as well He may suggest a different interior composition of the moon which may provide an explanation Some of the strange Earth-like features seen in the moon samples.

The high-resolution results obtained by the remarkable computing power of the DiRAC Memory Intensive service called CosmaIt is located at Durham University in England. It showed an outer mantle of the Moon rich in material from Earth.

This formation path could help explain the similarity in isotopic composition between moon rocks brought back by Apollo astronauts and Earth’s mantle. There may also be noticeable consequences for the thickness of the lunar crust.which will allow us to further determine the type of collision that occurred,” said Vincent Ike, co-author of the research and a physicist at Durham University.it is a statement.

The additional computational power revealed that low-resolution simulations could miss critical aspects of large-scale collisions. By using high-resolution simulations, researchers can discover features that were not available in previous studies. If a large portion of the Moon formed immediately after the giant impact, it could also mean that it melted less during formation compared to traditional theories where the Moon grew within the debris disk around the Earth. Depending on the details of the subsequent solidification, these theories should predict the various internal structures of the Moon.

Read on