The collision could have shaped our moon in a matter of hours; Watch the video

About 4.5 billion years ago,”Thea”, A hypothetical planet the size of Mars collided with Earth – at that time it was very different from what we know today. We know that this effect gave rise to the moon, but the research offers a new theory about how quickly this happened: our satellite if Formed in a matter of hours, not years.

According to scholars from NASA and university important roleIn the United kingdom, the material that broke apart in the devastating impact, including parts of Theia and our planet’s mantle, instantly fused and created the Moon—contrary to the most accepted theory to date, which would have passed many years before our natural moon was formed. , from debris.

NASA just published a video with a very detailed simulation of the new study. In it, it can be seen that soon after the impact, two bodies are formed, one larger and the other smaller. The smaller the moon became the moon, and the larger it was absorbed by the earth, increasing its size.

In this theory, the gravity of the larger debris and Earth pushes the smaller matter forward into a broad, stable orbit. This clue explains why our planet’s rotation directions and that of its satellite are similar.

Since, at the moment of impact, the interior of the Moon will not be completely melted and formed, the simulation also ends up providing an answer as to why the satellite has an inclined orbit and its thinner crust.

The new insight into the creation of the Moon, and its common origin with Earth, was made on a NASA supercomputer capable of simulating a cosmic event.

According to the space agency, the modeling used has the highest accuracy of any simulation ever made to apply theories involving the origins of the moon or other major influences.

A love story between the earth and the moon

Yaaqoub keggresThe new theory opens a large number of possibilities about the evolution of satellites and the intertwined history of the Moon and Earth, said a postdoctoral researcher at Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley (California, USA).

He is the one who signs the discovery article, which was published this month in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The team used software called SPH with Microscopic Intergranular Tasks Intertwined (SWIFT), designed to simulate the complex gravitational network and hydrodynamic forces acting on large amounts of matter in space.

“We embarked on this project without knowing exactly what the results of this high-resolution simulation would be. So, in addition to the great surprise that standard decisions can give misleading answers by omitting important aspects of motion, what was even more exciting was that the new results could to include a puzzling, moon-like satellite in its orbit,” Kegerreis celebrated.

Compare the importance of high resolution in such a survey using a telescope. Stronger, more details can be seen. In comparison, the standard resolution that was generally used in this type of study was between 100,000 and 1 million particles. Now, modeling has managed to reach 100 million particles.

New technology has allowed researchers to observe new behaviors that previous studies could not see.

The Moon and Earth have the same DNA.

This discovery may explain some of the questions already discussed about the formation and composition of the Moon. According to scientists, lunar samples that have already been analyzed in the laboratory show that the isotopic signature (based on chemical elements) of this substance is very similar to rocks found on Earth, which is very different, for example, from those found on Mars.

“This makes it likely that most of the materials that make up the Moon originally came from Earth,” NASA stated on its official website.

Vincent Eke, researcher at Durham University Inc. and co-author of the article said.

Analyzes of future lunar samples obtained by NASA’s Artemis missions can test the degree to which these theories agree.

The first clues about the composition of the moon were obtained after the return of the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin brought 21.6 kg of moon rock and dust to Earth.