History of Moon formation

After the Sun began to shine, the planets of the solar system began to form. But it took about hundreds of millions more years for the Earth's Moon to appear and exist today. There are three main theories about the formation of satellites of the planets: the big collision hypothesis, the hypothesis of the conception and the seizure hypothesis.

Hypothesis of a big collision

This is the prevailing hypothesis of the scientific community. Like other planets, the Earth is made up of residual dust and gas clouds that are orbiting the newly formed young Sun. The early solar system was a chaotic region, and a large number of objects were created but never became a true planet. According to the hypothesis of a big collision, one of those objects hit Earth shortly after the planet was formed.

Called Theia , a Mars-sized object collided with the Earth, blasting away the masses of this young planetary shell into space. Gravity binds these pieces of matter together, forming one of the largest moons in the solar system around its host planet. This type of formation was able to explain why the Moon was made up mainly of light elements, making it less dense than Earth - the material that formed the Moon came mainly from the Earth's crust when they left. Stone core of the early planet. When matter gathers around the rest of Theia's core, they may have gathered near the Earth's zodiacal plane, the Sun's path in the sky, and also where the Moon moves today.

Picture 1 of History of Moon formation
Does our Moon come from a horrific collision between Earth and Theia?

Hypothesis comes together

The Moon can also form at the same time with the planets. According to such an explanation, gravity could have caused material in the early Solar System to aggregate at the same time as gravity pulled the particles together to form Earth. Such a Moon may have a very similar composition to the planet, and could explain the moon's current position. However, although the Earth and the Moon share quite a lot of material together, the Moon's physical density is smaller than our Earth, making this hypothesis not the case of the Face. Moon except when both start with the same heavy element at its core.

Arrest hypothesis

Perhaps the gravity of the Earth has captured a passing object, as it has happened to other moons in the Solar System, such as Mars's Moon Phobos and Deimos. According to the seizure hypothesis, a rock object formed somewhere in the Solar System may have been pulled into orbit around the Earth. The seizure hypothesis can explain the difference in the composition of the Earth and the Moon. However, such a satellite often has an odd shape and not a spherical shape like the Moon. Their path also does not tend to lie on the zodiacal plane of the parent planet, unlike our Moon.

Although the conjecture and conjecture together explain the ingredients that exist on the Moon, they still leave many questions unanswered. Until now, the hypothesis of the big collision seems to answer a lot of questions, making it the best model to match the scientific evidence of how the Moon was made.