Jakarta –
How Month formed, is a question that is often asked by people who are curious about Earth’s natural satellites that always shine brightly at night.
Scientists believe the Moon was created 4.5 billion years ago in the midst of the chaos of the young Solar System, with volatile material accumulating to form planets.
There are at least three main theories about how the Moon formed:
- Giant impact theory: The Apollo astronauts brought back more than 22 kilograms of rock and dust collected from the Moon’s surface. The samples reveal some striking similarities between the Earth and the Moon, showing a nearly identical chemical and isotopic composition
- Formed with Earth: In this scenario, as matter bonded together to form Earth, some of the matter also formed the Moon, and the smaller object ended up orbiting its larger companion
- Capture theory: The moon formed somewhere else outside the Solar System. As it moves, it is then captured by Earth’s gravity.
The giant impact hypothesis is the most popular of the three. The hypothesis suggests that the Moon formed from material ejected from a massive collision between a Mars-sized planetary body, known as Theia, and young Earth, also known as proto-Earth, right after our planet formed its initial crust. The two papers are variations of this scenario. The debris left over from this impact is collected in orbit around the Earth, bound together through the force of gravity.
The author behind this study argues that if Month born from one giant impact, then it was mostly made up of material from Theia. In contrast, the Earth and the Moon have much of the same composition.
“The standard model for the moon requires very slow collisions, relatively speaking,” said Erik Asphaug, a professor in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
“And that creates a Moon consisting mostly of the affected planets, not proto-Earths, which is a big problem because the moon has nearly identical isotopic chemistry to Earth.”
But if a double collision were to occur, as quoted from Inverse, then the event would confuse between proto-Earth and Theia, resulting in the composition of the Moon.
Why Does Earth Have a Moon?
Earth is not the only planet that forms or captures Month. These natural satellites are quite common throughout our star system.
Most of the planets in the Solar System have moons orbiting:
- Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos
- Jupiter, the largest planet, has 79 moons
- Saturn has 82 moons
- Uranus and Neptune have 27 and 14 months, respectively
- Some asteroids and dwarf planets also have moons. Pluto, for example, has five.
Without Month, life on Earth would not look the same. The moon is partly responsible for the changing seasons on Earth. The impact that gave birth to the Moon may also have caused the planet’s tilt. This tilt gives Earth the change of seasons as parts of the planet get closer and further away from the light and warmth of the Sun.
Month still helps Earth maintain that tilt to this day. A 2018 study also showed that 1.4 billion years ago, a day on Earth lasted only 18 hours as the Moon was closer to our planet, affecting how Earth rotates on its axis.
Next page: What is the moon made of, and what the future holds >>>
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