Simulations Suggest New Model On How Moon Was Formed

The moon, as we see during the night, is indeed, not just one but comprise of many little moons that had merged as one and formed one gigantic moon.

As simulations suggest, the debris that floats around the Earth might be the result from series of a cosmic collision. As a result, tiny moons were formed from these impact that when combined together over millions of years, they form into one giant moon which we see most of the nights.

According to Robin Canup, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. who was not involved in the new work, this new model on how the Moon was formed is a real contender in with the other and more popular moon-forming scenarios. Quoted by Science News, the scientist further offered, “This out-of-the-box idea isn’t any less probable — and it might be more probable — than the other existing scenarios.”

Until now, the most favored theory on how the moon was formed is the collision that occurred between the Earth and a Mars-sized object called Theia around 4.5 billion years ago. The impact from this collision most likely formed the Moon.

Another planetary scientist named Raluca Rufu of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel and his colleagues replenished the old known-theory, however, and rather suggested that the Moon form from multiple impacts.

"Our model suggests that the ancient Earth once hosted a series of moons, each one formed from a different collision with the proto-Earth," said co-author Hagai Perets of the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, as per Independent. Rufu added in the same statement: "It's likely that small moons formed through the process could cross orbits, collide and merge."

Such collision is common and most likely to occur in our early solar system, this can be a supporting factor in their presumption. But Gareth Collins - a London scientist of Imperial College – is insisting on more evidence to support their argument related to the moon formation.

Furthermore, some moonlets surely failed to collide properly to form the Moon or lost in the vast space, said Collins in the Companion Article. From these failures, many more impacts may have been required. Thus, making the multi-impact theory less plausible than the single-impact theory.

It requires further investigations for us to better understand how the moon was formed from combining tiny moons, and digging relevant facts that may support this theory is not easy.