London: Solar system is in intriguing space with lots of enigmatic celestial elements hovering in the dark abyss. A large bubble of raveled and unraveled tales, our solar system has interesting facts on life filled in it. Speaking of life and solar system, in reveries, have you thought of how our Moon, Earth’s Moon was created? What is its origin story? Is there a big bang theory behind it? Well, over the years, lots of speculations have made the rounds and recently, Scientists from Durham University’s Institute for Computational Cosmology in the UK used the most detailed supercomputer simulations yet to reveal an alternative explanation for the Moon’s origin.Also Read – Tarantula, Skeletons, Frankenstein And Everything Scary About NASA's H(alloween)Exoplanets
HOW WAS MOON FORMED?
Scientists have revealed that there is a possibility that A giant impact could have formed the Moon more rapidly within hours. This new discovery has opened up a whole new range of possible starting places for the Moon’s evolution. Also Read – NASA Uncovers Blue Cosmic Bubble. All You Must Know About This Unique Nebula 7100 Light Years Away
Scientists from Durham University’s Institute for Computational Cosmology in the UK used the most detailed supercomputer simulations yet to reveal an alternative explanation for the Moon’s origin, with a giant impact immediately placing a Moon-like body into orbit around Earth. Also Read – First Native American Woman Reaches Space as Part of NASA's Crew-5 Mission
WHAT THE NEW THEORY ON MOON’S FORMATION MEAN?
- The research team included scientists at NASA Ames Research Centre and the University of Glasgow, UK, and their simulation findings have been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.”We went into this project not knowing exactly what the outcomes of these very high-resolution simulations would be. So, on top of the big eye-opener that standard resolutions can give you wrong answers, it was extra exciting that the new results could include a tantalisingly Moon-like satellite in orbit,” said Jacob Kegerreis, lead researcher of the study.
- If much of the Moon formed immediately following the giant impact, then this could also mean that less became molten during formation than in the standard theories where the Moon grew within a debris disk around Earth.
- Depending upon details of the subsequent solidification, these theories should predict different internal structures for the Moon.
- “This formation route could help explain the similarity in isotopic composition between the lunar rocks returned by the Apollo astronauts and Earth’s mantle,” Vincent Eke, co-author of the study.
THE ‘COLLISION THEORY’
According to a report by BBC, there are a few different theories about how our Moon formed, but the most widely accepted one is the ‘giant-impact’ or ‘collision’ theory.
It says that the Moon was formed when the Earth and another small planet called Theia – about the size of Mars – crashed into each other. The leftover debris from Earth and Theia’s impact then fused together to form the Moon.
The newly formed Moon then began orbiting around the Earth.
However, this has been challenged by measurements of lunar rocks showing their composition is like that of Earth’s mantle, while the impact produces debris that comes mostly from Theia.
Furthermore, they found that even when a satellite passes so close to the Earth that it might be expected to be torn apart by the “tidal forces” from Earth’s gravity, the satellite actually can not only survive but also be pushed onto a wider orbit, safe from future destruction.
NASA’s Artemis Moon mission is expected to shed more light on the formation of our Moon once it is successfully launched.