Scientists propose a new hypothesis that the Moon formed from the early days of an early Earth evaporator cloud.
An international research group offers a new theory. According to their analysis, the Moon was born inside the Earth before the Earth became a solid planet.At the time of the formation of the Moon, the Earth was just a cloud of evaporating, donut-shaped rocks. The results are published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets on February 28, according to UPI.
The new theory suggests that the Moon formed inside a cloud of volatile rocks.(Photo: Sarah Stewart).
"The new study may explain the Moon's difficult-to-interpret characteristics with current understandings. The Moon is almost the same as the Earth, but there are some differences. This is the first model to match. The composition of the Moon, " said Sarah Stewart, a member of the research team at the University of California, Davis (USA).
The most common theory for the formation of the Moon is that the Moon is produced by a collision between the Earth and a celestial object of the size of Mars. The rock and metal fragments fired into space from the collision combine to form the Moon.
The new model shows that both the Earth and the Moon formed from such a giant collision. Scientists hypothesize that, at the early stage of the formation of the solar system, two bodies the size of a planet collide with each other to form a volatile rock cloud.
When the rock vapor condenses into liquid form, the cloud shrinks and then transforms into a molten planet. Scientists at UC Davis University and Harvard University (USA) believe that a physical sphere of volatile rock escapes during the collision, beyond the suction area of the evaporating stone cloud. capacitor. This will be the 'seed' to form the Moon, and it starts to orbit the newly condensed planet.
"Our model begins with a collision to form a volatile rock cloud. The Moon formed inside the Earth evaporates at temperatures from -15 ° C to -14 ° C, with pressure equal to dozens of atmosphere (atm), " said Simon Lock, a member of the research team at Harvard University.
Scientists say one of the advantages in their model is the flexibility, because the volatile rock cloud can form in many different ways. In addition, the theory of the collision between Earth and Theia only occurs when the size and timing are right.
Because the Earth and Moon formed from most of the same volatile materials, they have a similar composition. However, the new theory also explains why the Moon is slightly different, because it loses volatile materials during its escape from the evaporating cloud.
