* Astronomy

Moon formation: Was it a 'hit and run' accident?

Scientists have proposed a fresh idea in the long-running debate about how the Moon was formed.
What is certain is that some sort of impact from another body freed material from the young Earth and the resulting debris coalesced into today's Moon.
But the exact details of the impactor's size and speed have remained debatable.
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Title: A New Disintegrative Capture Theory for the Origin of the Moon
Authors: Peter D. Noerdlinger

The object that resulted in the creation of the Moon started in the same orbital path as Earth around the Sun, but at Earth's L4. This proto-Moon (PM) was 4 times less massive than the usual Giant Impact (GI) object "Theia" and was captured into Earth orbit. It had a 32% Iron-Nickel-Sulphur core supporting a dynamo, which explains magnetized lunar rocks. Following capture, it was torn apart by tidal forces and its core of iron plastered itself, with some of its rock mantle, on the surface of Earth at a very flat angle (producing the "Late Veneer"). After tidal stripping, the remaining PM rock was driven away from Earth to about 3.8 times Earth's radius and formed into what is now the Moon. The GI theory has several troubles: The violent collision melts the entire Earth, contrary to geological evidence. The Moon itself also has to condense out of the vapour cloud generated in the collision, but there is evidence that the Moon was not condensed out of vapour. In the new theory, the Moon as we know it may be only 3.8 - 3.9 billion years old, not 4.56 as usually assumed. That is the age of the PM. The minerals in the Moon would be about as old as the Earth, but would have been re-arranged in the capture and temporary disintegration process. If the Moon is as young as suggested, its origin would coincide with the beginning of life on Earth, which is unexplained in the GI theory. The manuscript asks, "Was the Moon Turned Inside-Out" and the answer is "Essentially, Yes."

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Title: Equilibration in the Aftermath of the Lunar-Forming Giant Impact
Authors: Kaveh Pahlevan, David Stevenson

Simulations of the moon-forming impact suggest that most of the lunar material derives from the impactor rather than the Earth. Measurements of lunar samples, however, reveal an oxygen isotope composition that is indistinguishable from terrestrial samples, and clearly distinct from meteorites coming from Mars and Vesta. Here we explore the possibility that the silicate Earth and impactor were compositionally distinct with respect to oxygen isotopes, and that the terrestrial magma ocean and lunar-forming material underwent turbulent mixing and equilibration in the energetic aftermath of the giant impact. This mixing may arise in the molten disk epoch between the impact and lunar accretion, lasting perhaps 10²-10³ yr. The implications of this idea for the geochemistry of the Moon, the origin of water on Earth, and constraints on the giant impact are discussed.

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Title: Turbulent mixing of metal and silicate during planet accretion - And interpretation of the Hf-W chronometer
Authors: Tais W. Dahl and David J. Stevenson

In the current view of planet formation, the final assembly of the Earth involved giant collisions between proto-planets (> 1000 km radius), with the Moon formed as a result of one such impact. At this stage the colliding bodies had likely differentiated into a metallic core surrounded by a silicate mantle. During the Moon-forming impact, nearly all metal sank into the Earth's core. We investigate to what extent large self-gravitating iron cores can mix with surrounding silicate and how this influences the short-lived chronometer, Hf-W, used to infer the age of the Moon. We present fluid dynamical models of turbulent mixing in fully liquid systems, attempting to place constraints on the degree of mixing. Erosion of sinking cores driven by Rayleigh-Taylor instability does lead to intimate mixing and equilibration, but large blobs (> 10 km diameter) do not emulsify entirely. Emulsification is enhanced if most of the accreting metal cores deform into thin structures during descent through the Earth's mantle. Yet, only 1-20% of Earth's core would equilibrate with silicate during Earth's accretion. The initial speed of the impactor is of little importance. We proceed to evaluate the mixing potential for shear instabilities where silicate entrainment across vertical walls causes mixing. The turbulent structure indicates that vortices remain at the largest scale and do not mix to centimeter length scale, where diffusion operates and isotopes can equilibrate. Thus, incomplete emulsification and equilibration of accreting iron cores is likely to occur.
The extent of metal-silicate equilibration provides key information for interpretation of siderophile budgets and the timing of core formation using the Hf-W chronometer. The time scale of core formation derived from the Hf-W chronometer is usually tied to the last major metal-silicate re-equilibration, believed to coincide with time of the Moon-forming impact. However, we show that large cores have limited ability to reset the Hf-W system in the silicate Earth. Excess 182W in bulk silicate Earth is more sensitive to early core formation processes than to radiogenic ingrowth after the last giant impact.

Source


Master's thesis about core formation and the age of the Moon.