Researchers studying the Moon’s cosmic birth have found at least 80 percent of the lunar orb originates on Earth. Past theories explaining the Moon’s origin have claimed the satellite was born when a Mars-sized object slammed into Earth early in its history. The incredible collision would have dislodged enough material into space for the Moon to gradually form over time. New research, however, has disputed this claim on the basis computer simulations prove in this scenario 80 percent of the Moon would be made from the impactor.
Instead, surface samples collected by NASA’s Apollo missions show lunar rock originates on Earth and not in other parts of the solar system.
A new theory now proposes a young Earth covered in bubbling magma 50 million years after it formed, was struck by a solid object.
The impact threw up an ocean of magma into space, where the molten rock solidified and fell into an orbit around Earth.
The incredible theory was presented on April 29 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
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The lunar study was co-authored by Yale University geophysicist Shun-ichiro Karato with input from researchers at Yale and Japan.
The geophysicist said in a statement: “In our model, about 80 percent of the moon is made of proto-Earth materials.
“In most of the previous models, about 80 percent of the moon is made of the impactor. This is a big difference.”
In the study, the scientist wrote: “Here we propose that a giant, solid impactor hit the proto-Earth while it was covered with a magma ocean, under the conventional collision conditions.
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“We perform density-independent smoothed particle hydrodynamic collision simulations with an equation of state appropriate for molten silicates.
“These calculations demonstrate that, because of the large difference in shock heating between silicate melts and solids (rocks), a substantial fraction of the ejected, Moon-forming material is derived from the magma ocean, even in a highly oblique collision.
“We show that this model reconciles the compositional similarities and differences between the Moon and Earth while satisfying the angular momentum constraint.
The Earth’s Moon is the fifth largest natural satellite out of the more than 190 moons in our solar system.
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The Moon’s gravitational influence on Earth is believed to stabilises the planets’ axis wobble.
This results in a stable climate, which has made the Earth more hospitable to life.
The Moon is also responsible for creating the tides across all of the seas and oceans.
US space agency NASA said: “With a radius of 1,079.6 miles (1,737.5 kilometres), the Moon is less than a third the width of Earth.
“If Earth were the size of a nickel, the Moon would be about as big as a coffee bean.
“The Moon is farther away from Earth than most people realise.
The Moon is an average of 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometres) away. That means 30 Earth-sized planets could fit in between Earth and the Moon.”
Scientists believe the Moon is slowly drifting away from the Earth at a pace of around one inch per year.
