The moon may be made from a magma ocean that once covered Earth

MIT Technology Review ^ | 4/30/19 | Erin Winick

[LibWhacker]

There are a number of theories about where the moon came from. Our best guess is that it was formed when the Earth was hit by a large object known as Theia. The impact threw up huge amounts of debris into orbit, which eventually coalesced to form the moon.

There’s a problem with this theory. The mathematical models show that most of the material that makes up the moon should come from Theia. But samples from the Apollo missions show that most of the material on the moon came from Earth.

A paper out earlier this week in Nature Geoscience has a possible explanation. The research, led by Natsuki Hosono from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, suggests that the Earth at the time of impact was covered in hot magma rather than a hard outer crust.

Magma on a planetary surface could be dislodged much more easily than a solid crust could be, so it’s plausible that when Theia struck the Earth, molten material originating from Earth flew up into space and then hardened into the moon.

This theory relies a lot on the timing of the formation of the moon. The Earth would have to have been in a sweet spot of magma heat and consistency for the theory to be true.

Additionally, as Jay Melosh at Purdue University explains in a comment article alongside the research, this new simulation still doesn’t check all the boxes needed to get our lunar observations in line with our theories. But it is an important step in getting closer to a solution.

[dfwgator]

[freedumb2003]

In b4 the melted cheese jokes.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks LibWhacker.

---

join or quit view topics view or post blog bookmark post new topic subscribe

---

[onedoug]

Interesting. Thanks for posting.

[SunkenCiv]

The Lunar Origin keyword, chrono sort:

• How Old Is Earth? [2019]
• Moon discovery: Ancient 4-billion-year-old relic found on lunar surface [possible Earth rock] [2019]
• Quake split a tectonic plate in two, and geologists are shaken [2018]
• Earth's days used to be just 18 hours long, but the Moon changed that [2018]
• Days on Earth Are Getting Longer, Thanks to the Moon [2018]
• Jupiter and Venus Change Earth's Orbit Every 405,000 Years [2018]
• What if the Moon was split in half? [2018]
• The Moon WASN'T formed with one giant impact but had a bombardment birth after 20 moonlets hit... [2018]
• The moon formed inside a hot cosmic doughnut, scientists say [2018]
• The Moon's equatorial bulge hints at Earth's early conditions [2018]
• Earth and Venus are the Same Size, so Why Doesn't Venus Have a Magnetosphere?.... [2017]
• Asteroids 'dumped water into molten Moon' [2016]
• NASA Research Provides New Details On Mystery of How the Moon Got 'Inked' [2016]
• Ancient lunar polar ice reveals tilting of Moon's axis [2016]
• Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution V [2016]
• Ancient Earth Remnant Is Inside Earth, Study Says [2014]
• A collision 4.5 billion years ago nearly destroyed our planet but instead helped start path to life [2014]
• Moon created in violent collision with Earth, clues in Apollo rocks suggest. [2014]
• Scientists May Be Wrong About The Amount of Water In The Moon [2014]
• Crystal is 'oldest scrap of Earth crust' [2014]
• Water Hidden in the Moon May Have Proto-Earth Origin [2013]
• How the American West was made -- a new view of plate tectonics [2013]
• Solar System Ice: Source of Earth's Water [2012]
• Free-floating planets in the Milky Way outnumber stars by factors of thousands [2012]
• Titanium Paternity Test Fingers Earth as Moon's Sole Parent [2012]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Evolution of the Moon [ video ] [2012]
• Who Needs a Moon? [2011]
• Moon's interior water casts doubt on formation theory [2011]
• Moon has liquid core just like Earth...reveal sensors left on surface by astronauts 40 YEARS ago [2011]
• Astronauts, Artists Agree: Moon Stinks of Gunpowder [2010]
• Where on Earth has our water come from? [2010]
• Water on the Moon: a Billion Gallons [2010]
• Moon Not Only Has Water, but Lots of It [2010]
• Gondwana Supercontinent Underwent Massive Shift During Cambrian Explosion [2010]
• The Earth and moon formed later than previously thought [2010]
• The Moon may have formed in a nuclear explosion [2010]
• Why is the Earth moving away from the sun? [2009]
• STEREO Hunts for Remains of an Ancient Planet near Earth... [2009]
• The Search for the Solar System's Lost Planet [2009]
• STEREO Hunts for Remains of an Ancient Planet near Earth [2009]
• Quakes triggered by tides of solid Earth [2009]
• The Curious Case of Missing Asteroids [2009]
• Far side of the moon 'could have been visible from earth' [2009]
• Were Mercury and Mars separated at birth? [2009]
• Source of Moon's Magnetism Found [2009]
• Did Earth's Twin Cores Spark Plate Tectonics? [2009]
• Moon Has Iron Core, Lunar-Rock Study Says [2008]
• Moon Is Younger And More Earth-Like Than Thought [2007]
• Earth's Moon is 'cosmic rarity' [2007]
• Earth's Moon is Rare Oddball [2007]
• Ancient impact may have bowled the Moon over [2007]
• Far-Flung Space Crash May Help Solve Mystery of Moon's Formation [2007]
• Amazon River Once Flowed in Opposite Direction [2006]
• Landscapes from the ancient and eroded lunar far side [2006]
• Planets Around Planets? [2006]
• Neptune Might Have Captured Triton [2006]
• An explosion on the Moon [2005]
• Comet or Meteorite Impact Events in 1178AD? [2005]
• New evidence for the Moon's soft middle [2004]
• It Came from Outer Space? [2004]
• When the Days Were Shorter [2004]
• A Celestial Collision [2004]
• In the shadow of the Moon [2004]
• No Moon, no life on Earth, suggests theory [2004]
• Heavenly Bodies Stir Up Routine Catastrophes [2003]
• Long-Destroyed Fifth Planet May Have Caused Lunar Cataclysm, Researchers Say [2002]
• Earth-Shattering Theory: Finally, The Details For Forming The Moon Work Out [2001]

[vpintheak]

Or. God spoke it into existence. And it’s very, very similar to what He created the earth with.

[ifinnegan]

I remember this from when I was a kid.

I thought this was long accepted.

[Paladin2]

Da Moon is a Fondue Feast gone bad?

[Telepathic Intruder]

The early solar system was a violent time, with lava planets, crashing moons, and Jedi duels.

[elcid1970]

That’s melted GREEN cheese!

;^)

[rjsimmon]

But samples from the Apollo missions show that most of the material on the moon came from Earth.

Or they both came from a common source. Why is that so difficult for these brainiacs to understand?

[MMaschin]

This is why I have a real problem with people who claim that 'Earth like' planets are common - they are not. When they state a 'large object' struck the Earth, they are talking about a planet size object the size of Mars!


Without the moon conditions on the Earth would not have been stable enough for complex life to form. Sure there may still have been some sorts of simple life, such as a soup or maybe even bacteria, but without a large object to stabilize rotation and axis conditions would not be stable enough for complex life to form. You need not only conditions that are stable (such as a longer day) to allow development, but also complex enough (like the seasons) to force variation. Without the Moon these conditions would not exist.

So when they calculate the likelihood of 'Earth like' planets they really need to throw in a variable for the likelihood of two planetary objects, in the Goldilocks zone, of colliding to form a planet/moon system with a moon of comparable size. The size of the moon is what makes it special, it's relative size to the Earth is what gives it it's stabilizing ability. No other known moon is as relatively large to it's host planet as the Moon. The normal way that moons form will not allow the creation of such a moon, every other moon in the solar system is tiny to it's host, the Moon is not.


When people claim scientists keep finding 'Earth like' planets, I turn away and shake my head, because it's simply not true, the likelihood of another planets having the conditions that allowed complex life on Earth to exist is extremely rare.

[Manly Warrior]

And here I thought the trick of phylogeny recapitulates ontogeny died about 120 years ago?

So, maybe the moon rock looks like earth rock etc, does that determine/prove anything other than that moon rock looks like earth rock? Remember the “scientific method” thingy? Logic is a lost art with these folks.

Genesis says that the moon and sun were created by God before the earth, maybe this is where these researchers ought to look. I bet they would find some clues as to the order of existence, but hey, its all about the narrative- eons of time and countless permutations of chance and all- just to say “there is no god”. Sigh, and we taxpayers fund it all.

Yeah, and I am not a “scientist”, thank God, otherwise I have to be so “open minded” that my brains would have fallen out, and I would have to believe a lie to be accepted...

[central_va]

Ok, let’s start at the beginning. About 2 Billion years ago the earth’s surface started to cool and a crust formed.

[Manly Warrior]

Oh, and of course, here is their “tell”- “still doesn’t check all the boxes needed to get our lunar observations in line with our theories. But it is an important step in getting closer to a solution.”

So, their observations don’t fit the theories, so they must be manipulated in order to so do.... Science my patooty.

[Reily]

I never interpreted the term “Earth-like planets” as anything more then planets roughly the size of the earth.

[JimRed]

A glancing blow, at the precise angle required to slow the object almost to a stop, then Earth’s gravity overcomes its momentum and captures it at about a quarter million miles distance.

God did it. That may be how He did it. Or maybe not...

[COBOL2Java]

Theia's hot!

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I remember science books for kids showing illustrations of how the moon “MAY have formed”.

First was a gravitational collapse of a gas cloud which became the moon.
Second was the earth formed a pimple, and eventually ruptured spewing out the stuff the moon was made of.
Third was the collision of a Earth and a large mini-planet which became the moon.