Many moonlets made up the Moon, says study
Posted on: 14/Jan/2017 4:02:14 PM
Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot have said that the Moon, our planet’s constant companion for some 4.5 billion years, may have been forged by a rash of smaller bodies smashing into an embryonic Earth.
Speaking about this, the researchers said, Such a bombardment birth would explain a major inconsistency in the prevailing hypothesis that the Moon splintered off in a single, giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized celestial body. In such a scenario, scientists expect that about a fifth of the Moon’s material would have come from Earth and the rest from the impacting body. The multiple impact scenarios is a more natural way of explaining the formation of the Moon.
Such multiple hits would have excavated more Earth material than a single one, which means the moonlets would more closely resemble our planet’s composition. In the early stages of the Solar System, impacts were very abundant, therefore it is more natural that several common impactors formed the Moon rather than one special one. Numerous impactors would have excavated more Earth material than a single one, which means the moonlets would more closely resemble our planet’s composition. About 20 such crashes would have been required to build the Moon, further study is needed into the mechanics of Moon formation from moonlets.
Experts say, The latest study has revived the hitherto largely discarded scenario that a series of smaller and more common impacts, rather than a single giant punch, formed the Moon. Building the Moon in this way takes many millions of years, implying that the Moon’s formation overlapped with a considerable portion of Earth’s growth.
The new study was published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
