Most theories that explain the origin of the Moon assume that Earth's natural satellite formed from the coalescence of debris from a violent collision between Earth and the Mars-sized object named Theia over the years. But NASA's new supercomputer high-resolution simulation of the impact reveals that it could have formed faster than years.
NASA scientists said that the formation of the Moon did not continue so long and immediately formed in a matter of hours. The groundbreaking research titled "Immediate Origin of the Moon as a Post-impact Satellite" published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters opens a new range of possible starting places for the Moon's evolution.
Violent Collision Between Earth and Theia
Some 4.5 billion years ago, the Moon was not yet around. Its sudden appearance has always baffled scientists who offer theories as to how Earth's cosmic bestie and closest neighbor formed.
According to Planetary Science Institute, the leading theory since the 1980s is that a planet as big as Mars crashed into Earth billions of years ago. The debris from the collision coalesced and forged the Moon over tens to hundreds of years.
Understanding the origin of the Moon requires knowing its mass, orbit, and precise analysis of lunar rock samples, NASA said. Prevailing theories could explain some aspects of the Moon's properties but with major caveats. One mystery scientists try to understand is why the composition of the Moon is so similar to Earth, which implies that the Moon originally came from Earth.
The theory in which Theia sprayed out into orbit and mixed with little material from Earth to create the Moon could help explain the similarity in composition. Although there are also other theories that try to explain these similarities, like the synestia model which explains that the Moon is formed in a swirl of vaporized rock from the collision.
The faster single-stage formation theory offers a more elegant explanation for the Moon's origin and gives new ways to find answers to unsolved mysteries. For instance, it helps explain how the Moon was put into its wide orbit with an interior that is not fully molten and explains the eccentricities of its properties.
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High-Resolution Simulation Sheds Light on Moon's Origin
NASA's new simulation could provide potential answers as to why the Moon is tilted, why it has a thin outer layer, and why its crust is so similar to Earth. Through their study, they not only explain Moon's origin but also explain a defining history of Earth's evolution.
Mashable reports that NASA put together a two-minute animation to show how the new model would unfold, showing Theia crashing into Earth. Instead of forming into a thin disk of debris, it divides into another blob but the Earth's gravity holds the smaller body onward.
Study lead author Jacob Kegerreis told Mashable that he has always thought it would be great if there are real sound effects for the explosions in the video.
NASA teamed up with the Institute of Computational Cosmology at Durham University to perform simulations that were up to 1,000 times higher resolution than standard to test, and observe different crash angles, speeds, spins, and sizes. In the end, they were able to create something that was not seen in previous studies.
The new model uses hundreds of millions of tiny particles to represent the planet bits that help describe how these materials interact through gravity, pressure, and heat the system that should behave accurately. Kergerreis said that the new study opens up new options to see how the Moon might have formed.
Watch the simulation below to see how the Moon formed after Earth collided with Theia:
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