Existing theories on the moon formation eclipsed

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - 06:30 in Astronomy & Space

A study published in Icarus highlights new perspective on how the moon was formed. The Moon is believed to have formed from a collision, 4.5 billion years ago, between Earth and an impactor the size of Mars, known as "Theia." Over the past decades scientists have simulated this process and reproduced many of the properties of the Earth-Moon system; however, these simulations have also given rise to a problem known as the Lunar Paradox: the Moon appears to be made up of material that would not be expected if the current collision theory is correct. A recent study proposes a new perspective on the theory in answer to the paradox.

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