Friday, October 23, 2009

Giant Impact


Since scientists were not around 4.4 to 4.5 billion years ago, scientists must think of ways as to how the moon was made and how earth may have captured it in it's gravitational field.

The successful Apollo moon landing narrowed several theories down to a single theory. Scientists analyzed moon dust and rock samples that were retrieved from the Apollo 11 mission. The samples were high in silicates, which is very similar to Earth's mantle composition.

The
Giant Impact between Earth and another planet-sized body seems to be a logical solution. I read this journal article from the Nature weekly science journals that corresponds to this data. Apparently, this planet-like celestial body collided with Earth in its molten state. As this planetesimal departed from the collision, it collected Earth's molten material, which cooled to form a silicate rich crust.

No comments:

Post a Comment