Earth may have already had two moons, but one was destroyed in an accident that left idling our current lumpy lunar orbit on one side than the other, scientists say.
Astronomers have long been puzzled that differences in the side of the moon always faces the Earth, almost half and half and always on the opposite side. Topography near the hand is relatively low and flat, while the other side is high and mountainous, much thicker shell.
According to a new computer model, this discrepancy can be explained if the smaller is the "companion of the moon", we met the other side of the moon in its history. Such a collision would have been splashed across a particularly hard stone material now forms the current lunar highlands.
For the theory to work, the little moon crashed into the largest in about 4400 miles (7081 km) per hour.
"This is the slowest possible collision of two massive bodies could have been dropped in another gravity," said co-author Erik Asphaug, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).
This relatively slow speed, the collision on the other side would not have enough energy to melt rock and carve out a crater. It would have been powerful enough to cast material of the small moon, the moon bigger.
"It's like a car accident, where you have crumpled fenders, but that will not melt when they hit cars," Asphaug said. "It's the same kind of phenomenon."
Collision Created moon meteor shower
The new theory, Asphaug and postdoctoral researcher Martin Jutzi UCSC, is detailed in the latest issue of the journal Nature.
According to their model, the two moons side by side peacefully about 80 million years, each in its stable orbit. Moons were the same color and texture, but one was about three times larger than the others, Asphaug said.
"Our moon looked like a large dish in the sky ... and when it goes down, there was a moon is another leak of about 60 degrees," he said.
This short period of harmony was broken moon, depending on the model where the gravitational interactions with the Earth's natural because the two moons to slip further from our planet. Sun's gravitational tug to destabilize the small lunar orbit and dropped it in its larger siblings.
Although not very energetic, the collision would have pushed trillion tons of lunar dust, out of the room, obscuring the two moons for several days.
"When the dust is removed, it had a moon, which may seem similar to our moon today," said Asphaug.
Up to a million years after the event, the earth was bombarded by fragments of different sizes of the moon, the largest of which could be as much as 62 miles (100 kilometers) across.
"You meteor in the sky for a long time," Asphaug said, although probably not have been life on earth are not attending a spectacular sky show.
Lunar Smashup opens "Problems Cool"
Astronomer Jeffrey Taylor of the University of Hawaii said the theory of the new moon is very interesting and worth further investigation.
Asphaug and Jutzi Model is not only a share of asymmetry of the Moon, Taylor said, but the results also explained the fates of smaller satellites theory predicts that another friend was supposed to be on the side of the Moon.
One of the main theories about how our Moon formed is that he was born after a Mars-sized planet collided with Earth shortly after the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years. (See "Earth-Moon formed later collision of an asteroid than previously thought.")
Scientists think past smashup created by molten rock ring of debris around the Earth, which eventually merged in many different organs, like the Moon. (Theme: "The moon has fallen, and may still be in a Contracting State.")
But "if so, what happened to [the smaller moons] This is the only thing that could happen to them," said Taylor, who was not involved in the study.
The new theory is not without problems, however. For example, it explains why the opposite side of the moon package shows high concentrations of aluminum, said Taylor.
If the two moons were formed from the material itself, as has been assumed, a moon and splatterings companion, would be a bit 'of aluminum, as the moon's interior.
However, this problem could be solved by future lunar studies, says Taylor, and it's not serious enough a reason to reject the theory.
"In any case," he says, "opens up the cool work problems."
source
Astronomers have long been puzzled that differences in the side of the moon always faces the Earth, almost half and half and always on the opposite side. Topography near the hand is relatively low and flat, while the other side is high and mountainous, much thicker shell.
According to a new computer model, this discrepancy can be explained if the smaller is the "companion of the moon", we met the other side of the moon in its history. Such a collision would have been splashed across a particularly hard stone material now forms the current lunar highlands.
For the theory to work, the little moon crashed into the largest in about 4400 miles (7081 km) per hour.
"This is the slowest possible collision of two massive bodies could have been dropped in another gravity," said co-author Erik Asphaug, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).
This relatively slow speed, the collision on the other side would not have enough energy to melt rock and carve out a crater. It would have been powerful enough to cast material of the small moon, the moon bigger.
"It's like a car accident, where you have crumpled fenders, but that will not melt when they hit cars," Asphaug said. "It's the same kind of phenomenon."
Collision Created moon meteor shower
The new theory, Asphaug and postdoctoral researcher Martin Jutzi UCSC, is detailed in the latest issue of the journal Nature.
According to their model, the two moons side by side peacefully about 80 million years, each in its stable orbit. Moons were the same color and texture, but one was about three times larger than the others, Asphaug said.
"Our moon looked like a large dish in the sky ... and when it goes down, there was a moon is another leak of about 60 degrees," he said.
This short period of harmony was broken moon, depending on the model where the gravitational interactions with the Earth's natural because the two moons to slip further from our planet. Sun's gravitational tug to destabilize the small lunar orbit and dropped it in its larger siblings.
Although not very energetic, the collision would have pushed trillion tons of lunar dust, out of the room, obscuring the two moons for several days.
"When the dust is removed, it had a moon, which may seem similar to our moon today," said Asphaug.
Up to a million years after the event, the earth was bombarded by fragments of different sizes of the moon, the largest of which could be as much as 62 miles (100 kilometers) across.
"You meteor in the sky for a long time," Asphaug said, although probably not have been life on earth are not attending a spectacular sky show.
Lunar Smashup opens "Problems Cool"
Astronomer Jeffrey Taylor of the University of Hawaii said the theory of the new moon is very interesting and worth further investigation.
Asphaug and Jutzi Model is not only a share of asymmetry of the Moon, Taylor said, but the results also explained the fates of smaller satellites theory predicts that another friend was supposed to be on the side of the Moon.
One of the main theories about how our Moon formed is that he was born after a Mars-sized planet collided with Earth shortly after the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years. (See "Earth-Moon formed later collision of an asteroid than previously thought.")
Scientists think past smashup created by molten rock ring of debris around the Earth, which eventually merged in many different organs, like the Moon. (Theme: "The moon has fallen, and may still be in a Contracting State.")
But "if so, what happened to [the smaller moons] This is the only thing that could happen to them," said Taylor, who was not involved in the study.
The new theory is not without problems, however. For example, it explains why the opposite side of the moon package shows high concentrations of aluminum, said Taylor.
If the two moons were formed from the material itself, as has been assumed, a moon and splatterings companion, would be a bit 'of aluminum, as the moon's interior.
However, this problem could be solved by future lunar studies, says Taylor, and it's not serious enough a reason to reject the theory.
"In any case," he says, "opens up the cool work problems."
source
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