«Explaining the Moon's volatile depletion has been a long - standing mystery, and yet it is a key piece of evidence about how the Earth -
Moon system formed,» said Dr. Robin Canup, associate vice president in SwRI's Space Science and Engineering Division and lead author of the Nature Geoscience paper detailing the findings.
«Explaining the Moon's volatile depletion has been a long - standing mystery, and yet it is a key piece of evidence about how the Earth -
Moon system formed,» said Dr. Robin Canup, associate vice president in SwRI's Space Science and Engineering Division and lead author of the Nature Geoscience paper detailing the findings.
Not exact matches
[1] Most of the collapsing mass collected in the centre,
forming the Sun, while the rest flattened into a protoplanetary disk out of which the planets,
moons, asteroids, and other small Solar
System bodies
formed.»
Instead of a weather
system, the title refers to the rain of space debris that Earth has endured throughout much of its history — including the powerful collision that
formed the
moon (SN: 4/15/17, p. 18).
Most scientists think that the
moon formed in the earliest days of the solar
system, around 4.5 billion years ago, when a Mars - sized protoplanet called Theia whacked into the young Earth.
This update to the
moon's age is in line with some previous estimates (SN Online: 4/17/15), although some argue the
moon formed 150 million to 200 million years after the solar
system's birth.
The
moon formed at least 4.51 billion years ago, no more than 60 million years after the formation of the solar
system, researchers report online January 11 in Science Advances.
The study, published in the June 4 issue of the journal Nature, describes a
system dominated by Pluto and its largest
moon, Charon, which together
form a «binary planet.»
As the ring
system spits out moonlet after moonlet, the small objects merge to
form larger
moons, which may merge in turn as they spiral outward from the planet.
The bulk of the solar
system's regular satellites — those
moons that stick close to their planets in roughly equatorial orbits —
formed this way, rather than taking shape simultaneously with the planets as a direct result of planet formation, French astrophysicists have concluded.
To find out, Jian Ge of the University of Florida in Gainesville and colleagues built a computer simulation of the
system, which showed that
moon - sized protoplanets — the precursors to larger worlds — could indeed
form after about a million years.
Through footage from NASA missions, viewers also visit those places in our solar
system most likely to harbor elusive life -
forms, including Mars and the
moons Titan, Io, Europa, and Enceladus, and explore analogous habitats found right here on Earth.
[In our own solar
system, for example, it is possible that areas beneath the ice of Jupiter's
moon Europa or in the geysers of Saturn's
moon Enceladus might support some
form of life.]
A plausible explanation for the myriad Plutonian
moons, Showalter says, is that «this
system began when something big hit Pluto billions of years ago — it created this big cloud of debris, most of which condensed to
form Charon.»
In its wake, the collision left a planetary disk that
formed the
moon and sent bits of proto - planet flying into our solar
system's main asteroid belt.
The new hypothesis also explains how Saturn's
moons that orbit just beyond the edge of today's ring
system might have
formed.
The presence of water in liquid
form still guides our searches for extraterrestrial life: on Mars, on the
moons of Saturn and Jupiter or on extrasolar planets (beyond our Solar
System).
The fragments of that final doomed
moon, each originally between 1 and 50 kilometers across,
formed an icy ring
system as much as 1000 times as massive as today's rings.
«The discovery of this
moon reinforces the idea that the Pluto
system was
formed during a massive collision 4.6 billion years ago,» says discovery team member Hal Weaver of Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
«The process is so efficient that 20 to 30 generations of
moons could have
formed» since the solar
system's birth, says Charnoz.
Esposito thinks this was early in the solar
system's history, and that the rings have gradually spread since then, perhaps
forming moons in the process.
«The model we propose is the least restrictive impact scenario,» Canup says, «since it involves only a single impact and requires little or no modification of the Earth -
Moon system after the
Moon -
forming event.»
If an accompanying moonlet
formed in the aftermath of that collision, simulations have shown, the
system would be unstable, pushing the moonlet into a sudden demise in a collision with the dominant
moon or with Earth.
Understanding how the
moons of our solar
system came to
form significantly improves scientists» understanding of the formation processes that sculpted the planets that they now orbit.
Kamuela, HI — Combining observations from the world's largest telescopes with small telescopes used by amateur astronomers, a team of scientists discovered that the large main - belt asteroid (87) Sylvia has a complex interior, thanks to the presence of two
moons orbiting the main asteroid, and probably linked to the way the multiple
system was
formed.
This is the sequence: Superclusters
form the top level, followed by clusters, galaxies, nebulae, star
systems, stars, planets and
moons.
A UCLA - led research team reports that the
moon is at least 4.51 billion years old and probably
formed only about 60 million years after the birth of the solar
system — 40 million to 140 million years earlier than had been thought.
Still other
moons were probably
formed from material left over when the planets were
formed in the early days of the solar
system.
-- to explore the Solar
System beyond Mars to understand how giant planets and their moons form and evolve, to search for habitable environments on and within moons (like Enceladus, Europa and Titan), and to examine the farthest bodies in the solar system for clues to the early history of the solar s
System beyond Mars to understand how giant planets and their
moons form and evolve, to search for habitable environments on and within
moons (like Enceladus, Europa and Titan), and to examine the farthest bodies in the solar
system for clues to the early history of the solar s
system for clues to the early history of the solar
systemsystem.
Well, almost encloses: Enceladus sprays geysers of water ice out into space, some of which settles back down to the
moon's surface in the
form of snow, making it the most reflective planetary object in the solar
system.
The leading theory for Charon's formation is that it
formed similar to the way that the Earth and
Moon have
formed: from the accumulated orbital debris that surrounded Pluto after a giant impactor hit the latter during the early history of the Solar
System.
«It will help us learn how rocky bodies
form, including Earth, its
moon and even planets in other solar
systems.»
Heat generated by the gravitational pull of
moons formed from massive collisions could extend the lifetimes of liquid water oceans beneath the surface of large icy worlds in our outer solar
system, according to new NASA research.
The discovery confirms earlier hints that life finds a way to survive in such extreme environments, and it boosts the possibility that some
form of life could be alive right now on icy
moons across the solar
system, such as Jupiter's
moon Europa.
There is also the prevailing theory that the
moon was
formed from a cataclysmic collision between proto - Earth and a solid impactor about 100 million years after our solar
system's formation.
Heat generated by the gravitational pull of
moons formed from massive collisions could extend the lifetimes of liquid water oceans beneath the surface of large icy worlds in our outer solar
system.
This
system could indeed be our first piece of evidence to show how stars, planets, and
moons all
form together and provide that «missing link» to transition between binary stars with planets to stars with planets with
moons.
After a great deal of analysis the OGLE team finally concluded that the
system must have
formed in a similar way to how a star / planet /
moon system must
form and could serve as a «missing link» between what we know about planet formation and what we hope to learn about
moon formation.
«The model we propose is the least restrictive impact scenario, since it involves only a single impact and requires little or no modification of the Earth -
Moon system after the
Moon -
forming event,» says Canup.
«Understanding the likelihood of
Moon -
forming impacts is an important component in how common or rare Earth - like planets may be in extrasolar
systems,» adds Canup.
The mass ratios of «A» / «B» and «B» / «Bb» are similar to those of the Sun / Neptune and Neptune / Triton, so it is not a far stretch to claim that «A» / «B» / «Bb» resembles a scaled up star / planet /
moon system and could have
formed in a similar way.
Our
moon may have
formed when a Mars - sized object crashed into the nascent Earth 4.5 billion years ago, and the resulting debris coalesced into the Earth -
moon system.
This product includes the following 54 topics: Space Science: ♦ Comets, Meteors, Asteroids etc. ♦ Eclipses ♦
Moon Phases ♦ Planets ♦ Solar
System Earth Science: ♦ Clouds ♦ Erosion and Weathering ♦ Fossils ♦ Landforms ♦ Layers of the Atmosphere ♦ Layers of the Earth ♦ Natural Disasters ♦ Natural Resources ♦ Plate Tectonics ♦ Rock Cycle ♦ Seasons ♦ Soil ♦ Volcanoes ♦ Water Cycle ♦ Weather Life Science: ♦ Animal Adaptations ♦ Biomes ♦ Cell Structures ♦ DNA ♦ Ecosystems ♦ Evolution ♦ Food Webs ♦ Genetic Engineering ♦ Habitats ♦ Heredity ♦ Human Body
Systems ♦ Life Cycle of a Butterfly ♦ Life Cycle of a Frog ♦ Life Cycles ♦ Macromolecules ♦ Microscope Parts ♦ Mitosis ♦ Photosynthesis ♦ Plant Parts ♦ Six Kingdoms of Life Physical Science: ♦ Atomic Structure ♦ Circuits ♦ Electromagnetic Spectrum ♦ Elements, Compounds, Mixtures ♦ Force and Motion ♦
Forms of Energy ♦ Magnets ♦ Periodic Table ♦ Properties of Matter ♦ Scientific Method ♦ Sound and Light ♦ States of Matter ♦ Thermal Energy ♦ Waves
This product includes the following 46 topics: Physical Science ♦ Clouds ♦ Fossils ♦ Landforms ♦ Layers of the Atmosphere ♦ Layers of the Earth ♦ Natural Disasters ♦ Natural Resources ♦ Plate Tectonics ♦ Rock Cycle ♦ Rocks and Minerals ♦ Volcanoes ♦ Water Cycle ♦ Weather Life Science ♦ Animal Adaptations ♦ Cell Structures (Organelles) ♦ Ecosystems ♦ Human Body Organs ♦ Human Body
Systems ♦ Life Cycles ♦ Photosynthesis ♦ Plant Parts ♦ Six Kingdoms of Life ♦ Macromolecules ♦ Microscope Parts ♦ DNA ♦ Classification and Taxonomy Physical Science ♦ Atomic Structure ♦ Circuits ♦ Electricity and Magnetism ♦ Electromagnetic Spectrum ♦ Elements, Compounds, and Mixtures ♦ Force and Motion ♦
Forms of Energy ♦ Lab Equipment ♦ Measurement Tools ♦ Periodic Table ♦ Properties of Matter ♦ Reflection and Refraction ♦ Scientific Method ♦ Simple Machines ♦ States of Matter ♦ Waves Space Science ♦ Solar
System ♦ Constellations ♦
Moon Phases ♦ Life Cycle of Stars
Space Science: ♦ Life Cycle of Stars ♦
Moon Phases ♦ Space and Planets Earth Science: ♦ Clouds ♦ Erosion ♦ Fossils ♦ Landforms ♦ Natural Disasters ♦ Natural Resources ♦ Plate Tectonics ♦ Rocks and Minerals ♦ Rock Cycle ♦ Water Cycle ♦ Weather Life Science: ♦ Animal Adaptations ♦ Biomes ♦ Cell Cycle ♦ Cell Organelles ♦ DNA ♦ Evolution ♦ Food Chains ♦ Genetics ♦ Habitats ♦ Human Body
Systems ♦ Life Cycles ♦ Macromolecules ♦ Plants Physical Science: ♦ Atomic Structure ♦ Electricity ♦ Electromagnetic Spectrum ♦ Elements, Compounds, and Mixtures ♦ Force and Motion ♦
Forms of Energy ♦ Magnets ♦ Periodic Table ♦ Properties of Matter ♦ Reflection and Refraction ♦ Scientific Method ♦ Simple Machines ♦ Sound and Light ♦ States of Matter ♦ Thermal Energy