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The Moon’s Long Lost Twin Found
International Business Times ^ | 8/11/2011 | International Business Times

Posted on 03/24/2012 12:57:47 AM PDT by U-238

The moon maybe palely alone in the night sky today but according to scientists it is possible that the there was a second, smaller moon 4.4 billion years ago.

A paper published in the journal Nature theorized that there was a smaller moon created in the same impact that created the moon. Astronomers, Martin Jutzi and Erik Asphaug of the University of California at Santa Cruz have long wondered why the moon had two incongruous sides, one smooth with flat plains and another side full of rugged mountains and craters.

The astronomers started thinking that the mountainous region had been added to a pre-existing surface. This theory follows the generally held belief that the moon was formed after a Mars-sized planetoid crashed into Earth to blast a cloud of debris into space that would eventually congeal into the moon. Smaller pieces could have formed at a Trojan point or a place in the same orbit as the moon but ahead or behind it.

The mini-Moon would eventually become gravitationally unstable and would fall back to the bigger Moon. Jutzi and Asphaug's computer simulations of the event show that the Moon's smaller twin wouldn't fall back to the moon in a fiery explosion but in gentle descent. Not with a bang but with a splat.

"Being slow, it does not form a crater, but splats material onto one side," Professor Asphaug said. The extra mini-Moon mass would account for the extra material on the far side of the moon.

The scenario also explains other features found in the moon including why the side facing Earth has so much lava. At the time of the impact the extra mass added to the other side of the moon could have moved the magma beneath the crust upwards to the near side of the

(Excerpt) Read more at au.ibtimes.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Technical
KEYWORDS: astronomy; astrophysics; catastrophism; moon; solarsystem; spacescience; stellarscience; xplanets
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To: presently no screen name
I'm NOT saying you are a troll, really, I am not.

Seriously.

61 posted on 03/24/2012 2:41:23 PM PDT by Paradox (I want Obama defeated. Period.)
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To: MD Expat in PA

Do you not consider the Moon landings a tangible result? What about advances in medicine? Are you not typing on a computer and posting over the internet?


I think you missed the part where I stated the word “tangible.”

With, or without the space program the advances in communication would have come along anyway. Improvements in medicine would have come also.

Tangible: Something you can touch, smell, taste, feel or see. Not guesswork and conjuring.


62 posted on 03/24/2012 2:55:55 PM PDT by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: DH
With, or without the space program the advances in communication would have come along anyway. Improvements in medicine would have come also.

Tangible: Something you can touch, smell, taste, feel or see. Not guesswork and conjuring.

Scientific Method

All scientific inquiry starts with a certain amount of conjecture, a hypothesis and a certain amount of guesswork. The key is to take your hypothesis and perform observations or replicable experiments to prove your hypothesis and then publish the results so that other scientists may duplicate your same observations or experiments and prove them to be either true or false.

The problem with articles like these and nearly all articles published for mass consumption, is that the hypothesis and published paper is often reported as “fact” when it has only been published and not yet duplicated, agreed upon or rejected upon peer review. And when subsequent peer review refutes the hypothesis, it’s often taken as “See, the scientists were wrong again!” when that is not at all the case.

The space program accelerated communication and computer technology in ways that would not have been possible without it. The type of communication necessary for the Moon landings would not have necessarily been thought of if not for the necessity of developing them, necessity being the mother of invention as it were. If you use a cell phone or have cable TV or satellite dish, thank in great part, the scientist at NASA.

When it comes to astronomy, it is not possible to touch, smell, taste, feel or see things that occurred in the distant past. But that doesn’t make it “conjuring” as in a magic trick or illusion.

63 posted on 03/24/2012 3:46:06 PM PDT by MD Expat in PA
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To: MD Expat in PA

Not NASA, really. Thank the clockmaker.

NOTHING we use today would work without the clocks.


64 posted on 03/24/2012 5:12:03 PM PDT by patton (DateDiff)
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To: U-238
Very intersting thread. Thanks for posting.

Gerald L Schroeder, The Science Of God: The Convergence Of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom

65 posted on 03/24/2012 7:19:52 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: All

I will commend everyone for doing a excellent job debating this issue.I learned a lot from both sides of this topic.


66 posted on 03/24/2012 7:22:35 PM PDT by U-238
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To: U-238

The spins, right? Spins pretty fast?
So why isn’t everything throw off into space by the centrifugal force?
Oh! That’s right! Gravity....

That explains everything.

What’s gravity?
That’s what keeps things from being thrown into space by centrifugal force.

D’oh!


67 posted on 03/24/2012 7:31:01 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: presently no screen name
It wasn't created by impact, it was SPOKEN into existence. They need to live with it as they will NEVER 'figure it out' but they make a good sideshow.

They should have contacted you first!

68 posted on 03/24/2012 7:38:04 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: U-238
One missing aspect that might make the discussion more interesting would be the various cultures with legends of there once being two moons.

That of the Sumerians is probably the least obscure, and interesting in a Velikovskian sort of way, supposedly it nearly collided with Earth but broke up, causing the Earth's orbit of the sun to slow, from 360 days to the current 365+ days. It also supposedly introduced the wobble we now know as seasons.

Then, there's the astronomer Walter Gornold, moonlighting as an astrologer with the nom de plume Sephariel, who claimed in 1918 to have actually discovered the second “dark” moon of Earth, that he named Lilith, that was roughly of the same size and mass as the known, visible moon. This he drew upon from astrology, which has a second, black moon by that name.

There is much of interest here, that could be discussed.

69 posted on 03/24/2012 8:01:27 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: RegulatorCountry

Thank you for bringing this up. I did not know about many of the things you listed.

:)


70 posted on 03/24/2012 8:05:37 PM PDT by U-238
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To: U-238
It's a topic that can tend to be loaded with tinfoil, as the Sumerians appear to have claimed that they learned this from godlike people who came down out of the sky. Astrology is a touchy one, too. It's virtually indistinguishable from astronomy in antiquity, but it's regarded as anything but scientific today, so anything with that label is immediately discredited across broad swathes of society today. Then, there's Lilith, the supposed demonic first wife of Adam. All manner of minefields in this. It would make for a very lively discussion, but could veer off the rails at any moment, lol.
71 posted on 03/24/2012 8:18:14 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: SunkenCiv

Video of how the moon was born:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO45ZiGql8E


72 posted on 03/24/2012 9:54:51 PM PDT by Explorer89 (And now, let the wild rumpus start!!)
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To: RegulatorCountry

I hope people will act in a mature manner and have a thought provoking debate with exchanges of ideas.


73 posted on 03/24/2012 10:02:13 PM PDT by U-238
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To: Explorer89

Thanks Explorer89.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1234919/posts


74 posted on 03/25/2012 11:18:55 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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To: RegulatorCountry

Slowing the Earth’s rotation on its axis would both reduce the number of days in the year (because the day would be slightly longer) and lengthen the synodic month (because it would take slightly longer for the Earth to ‘catch up’ with the Moon); this percentage is an interesting number, as the ancient year was for quite a while exactly 12 months of 30 days each.


75 posted on 03/25/2012 11:24:59 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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To: presently no screen name
For what purpose? His Word doesn't say that. That's an 'feel good' excuse to do want you want. We are to KNOW HIM as much as possible.

Proverbs 2:2-7 King James Version (KJV):
2)So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
3)Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4)If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5)Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6)For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
7)He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

Hosea 4:6(KJV)
6)My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

God provided man with a brain allowing him to abstract information from his environment. Not to use it would seem to me a sinful act.

76 posted on 03/25/2012 12:30:41 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: SunkenCiv

You’re correct, I don’t know why I recalled the Sumerian account of a supposed second moon near collision as slowing the earth’s rotation of the sun. It didn’t, it was the cause attributed for an increase in the speed of the earth’s rotation upon its own axis, leading to the 365+ day year, instead of the symmetrical, 12 month, 360 day year of ancient calendars.

“Faster” days could at least in part account for the extraordinary longevity of men in certain ancient accounts as well.


77 posted on 03/25/2012 12:49:51 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: onedoug
God provided man with a brain allowing him to abstract information from his environment.

That's your natural mind's interpretation. His word is spiritually discerned. We are to renew our natural mind to learn about HIM who we can't see.

Those Scriptures are for knowledge of HIM/HIS KINGDOM - not for our environment! We don't need to be taught what comes naturally as being interested in what we can 'see'.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

You think God rejects those who have no idea about fossils, the sun/moon? LOL! Use your head for something other than a hatrack.

78 posted on 03/25/2012 2:02:35 PM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: presently no screen name

Well, I’ll take Solomon’s and Hosea’s understanding.

His Grace to You and Yours.


79 posted on 03/25/2012 4:07:42 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: U-238

That's no Moon!


80 posted on 03/26/2012 1:38:05 PM PDT by justlurking (The only remedy for a bad guy with a gun is a good WOMAN (Sgt. Kimberly Munley) with a gun)
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