NATS 1570 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Giant-Impact Hypothesis, The Moons
Document Summary
The earth moon system is quite unique in the relative sizes of these two objects. The current best theory is that a giant impact very early on resulted in this unusual situation. These are two fairly similar size objects in orbit around each other, so as we will soon later this is an off situation. Best current theory suggests it is the result a collision early on as the solar system was forming. A mars sized object - sometimes called this. Literally comes in and collides with earth - because of the nature of the collision, rather than shattering, they end up merging to a certain degree. Debris starts orbiting and then it ends up in our moon. Moon has a lower density and less iron in core. Spin of both bodies have similar orientation. Basalts on earth and moon have similar characteristics. Here we look at impact structures as they are common throughout the solar system.