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New supercomputer simulations show how the Moon may have formed through the collision of the Earth with a Mars-sized planet called Theia about 4.5 billion years ago.
British scientists have produced several simulation scenario animations, each showing a different amount of rotation that the “wandering planet” Theia may have had as it approached Earth.
Each simulation depicts various explosive patterns of rock debris emanating from the point of impact, which may have clustered to form the Moon.
The simulations are based on what is generally known to astronomers as the “Big Splash” or “Giant Impact Hypothesis” theory.
According to the theory, Theia, which was about 3,792 miles in diameter, crashed into Earth with a diameter of 7,917 miles, created a ring of debris around our home planet that eventually joined to form the Moon.
The event – about 4.45 billion years ago and 150 million years after the formation of the Solar System – is the most pervasive idea to explain how relatively large the Moon is compared to other rocky bodies.
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Still images from a cross-section of a 3D simulation performed by researchers studying how a collision between the early Earth and a Mars-sized object could have led to the formation of the Moon
“Collision animation” shows the impact with a non-rotating Theia. It is the same as ‘Impactor without spin’ but from a different one point of view.
“ Adding different amounts of rotation to Theia in simulations, or having no rotation at all, gives you a whole range of different results for what could have happened when the early Earth was hit by a huge object all those billions of years ago. ” study author Sergio Ruiz-Bonilla of Durham University said.
“It is exciting that some of our simulations have produced this mass of material in orbit relatively not much smaller than the Moon, with an additional disk of material around the Earth after impact that would help the group grow in mass over time.
“I wouldn’t say this is the Moon, but it’s certainly a very interesting place to keep looking.”
In collaboration with the University of Glasgow, Durham scientists ran their supercomputer simulations on the DiRAC high-performance computing framework.
DiRAC’s computing resources – a vast collection of processors, cables, and other hardware – are spread across four university sites, including Durham.
The researchers tracked down the rock material that would have exploded from the source of the collision and likely formed to create the Moon.
The simulated collision with the early Earth produced different results depending on the size and direction of Theia’s initial rotation, from no rotation to “spinning like a billiard ball”, either clockwise or counterclockwise.
At one extreme, with maximum clockwise rotation, the collision joined the two objects together.
With a maximum counterclockwise rotation, meanwhile, there was a radical hit and run impact.
Graphic taken from the research paper. The yellow planet is Theia and the black arrows represent their different speeds of rotation. The two on the left (l = -1 / 2 and l = -1 / 4) gave rise to mergers. The middle box (showing simulations that do not involve spin) and the one to the right next to it have produced orbiting groups or lunar candidates. The simulation depicted in the box on the far right produced a “hit and run impact”
And the simulation in which no spin was added to Theia produced a mass of self-gravitating material with a mass of about 80% of the Moon.
When a small amount of rotation was added to the simulations, another Moon-like object was created.
The resulting mound, which was shown to settle in an orbit around the Earth after the impact, would have grown and wiped out the disk of debris surrounding our planet.
The simulated group also had a small iron core, similar to that of the Moon, with an outer layer of materials consisting of the early Earth and Theia.
This artist’s concept shows a celestial body the size of our moon hitting a planetary body in a scenario that could be similar to Theia’s collision with Earth.
“We get a number of different results depending on whether or not we introduce the spin to Theia before it crashes into primordial Earth,” said study author Dr. Vincent Eke of Durham University.
“It is particularly fascinating that when no or very little spin is added to Theia, the impact with early Earth leaves behind a trail of debris, which in some cases includes a body large enough to deserve to be called the proto-Moon.
“There may be a number of possible collisions that have yet to be studied that could bring us even closer to understanding how the Moon formed in the first place.”
While the simulations aren’t definitive proof of the Moon’s origin, the experts add, they represent a promising stage for understanding how our closest neighbor might have formed.
Research in March this year claimed to prove the Big Splash theory, based on Theia’s traces in moon rocks.
Researchers at the University of New Mexico examined oxygen isotopes in moon rocks brought to Earth by Apollo astronauts.
They found differences in oxygen isotopes – an indicator of the origin of the material – between lunar rocks and terrestrial rocks, which could have come from the remains of Theia after the impact.
However, another May study reported the discovery of carbon ions from the Moon’s surface.
NASA’s Galileo spacecraft took this image of the Moon on December 7, 1992 while on its way to explore the Jupiter system in 1995-97
The carbon should have been completely vaporized by the intense temperatures generated in the colossal impact event.
The results of this new study were published in the Royal Astronomical Society’s Monthly Notices.
The research team now plans to run further simulations by altering the mass, speed, and rotational speed of both the target and impactor to see what effect it has on the formation of a potential Moon.
SCIENTISTS DO NOT AGREE ON HOW THE MOON WAS FORMED, BUT MANY BELIEVE IT IS THE RESULT OF AN IMPACT BETWEEN EARTH AND ANOTHER PLANET
Many researchers believe that the moon formed after Earth was hit by a planet the size of Mars billions of years ago.
This is called the giant impact hypothesis.
The theory suggests that the moon is made up of debris left behind as a result of a collision between our planet and a body about 4.5 billion years ago.
The colliding body is sometimes called Theia, from the mythical Greek Titan who was the mother of Selene, the moon goddess.
Many researchers believe that the moon formed after Earth was hit by a planet the size of Mars billions of years ago. This is called the giant impact hypothesis
But a mystery persisted, revealed by the rocks that Apollo astronauts brought back from the moon: Why are the moon and Earth so similar in their composition?
Over the years, several theories have emerged to explain the similar fingerprints of the Earth and the Moon.
Perhaps the impact created a huge cloud of debris that completely mixed with the Earth and then condensed to form the moon.
Or Theia could, coincidentally, be chemically similar to the young Earth.
A third possibility is that the moon formed from terrestrial materials rather than from Theia, although this would have been a very unusual type of impact.
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