Sentences with phrase «giant impact hypothesis»

The Giant Impact Hypothesis still has some unresolved issues, currently it is the best fit to the available data.

According to the widely accepted «giant impact hypothesis,» proposed in the 1970s, the moon is believed to have been formed about 4.5 billion years ago when a Mars - sized planet slammed into early Earth.

The findings of the study are still, to an extent, speculative, as they are dependent on the giant impact hypothesis being true.

«This is one of the major challenges for this really beautiful giant impact hypothesis,» Perets added.

Currently the leading theory of how the moon formed is the giant impact hypothesis, which proposes that an object the size of Mars slammed into the infant Earth 4.5 billion years ago and knocked off large, molten chunks.

«Our experiments bring additional evidence in favor of the giant impact hypothesis,» said Maylis Landeau, the lead author of the paper, who was a post-doctoral fellow in Johns Hopkins» Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences when the experiments were conducted.

«In my mind, the giant impact hypothesis is still standing.»

The findings help iron out a big wrinkle in the giant impact hypothesis, the only idea about the moon's origin that hasn't been shot down yet, says Harvard University planetary scientist Sarah Stewart, who was not involved with the study.

This Giant Impact Hypothesis suggests that the outer layers of Earth and the object were flung into space and eventually formed the moon.

«So people decided to change the giant impact hypothesis,» Wang said.

Not exact matches

When Hartmann and his colleague Donald Davis presented the giant - impact hypothesis at a conference in 1974, they learned that a team of Harvard astronomers had come up with the same idea.

Olson said the giant impact argument for the formation of the moon is the most prevalent scientific hypothesis on how Earth satellite was formed, but it is still considered unproven because there's been no «smoking gun» evidence.

The planetary scientist who, along with Asphaug, helped vault the giant - impact mechanism for the moon's formation into wide acceptance, sees value in the new hypothesis.

According to the prevalent theory for the moon's formation — the «giant - impact hypothesis» — the Earth's axis (the invisible line that runs through the planet and connects its two magnetic poles, around which the planet spins each day) used to run perpendicular to its orbit.