What is the most accepted theory on how the Moon was created if it is actually what happened How did the mass and composition of the Earth then change?

What is the most accepted theory on how the Moon was created if it is actually what happened How did the mass and composition of the Earth then change?

Finally, according to the fission scenario, Earth had been spinning so fast that some material broke away and began to orbit the planet. What is most widely accepted today is the giant-impact theory. It proposes that the Moon formed during a collision between the Earth and another small planet, about the size of Mars.

What is the giant impact hypothesis for the origin of the Moon quizlet?

The prevailing theory supported by the scientific community, the giant impact hypothesis suggests that the moon formed when an object smashed into early Earth. Like the other planets, Earth formed from the leftover cloud of dust and gas orbiting the young sun.

How does the large impact theory explain the Moon’s lack of iron?

Lunar breccia is formed by rock fragments bonded together by heat and pressure. How does the large-impact hypothesis explain the moon’s lack of iron? Both planetesimals were differentiated, and the two iron cores went to Earth.

How does the large-impact hypothesis explain the Moon’s lack of iron quizlet?

How does the large-impact hypothesis explain the moon’s lack of iron? The iron core of the impacting object could have fallen into the larger body.

What is the best evidence for the large impact hypothesis of the Moon’s formation quizlet?

What is the best evidence for the Large Impact Hypothesis of the Moon’s formation? Moon rocks with a composition similar to Earth’s crust, but poor in metals. On Mercury, scarps (cliffs) cut across the surface; what is the origin of scarps? Why do we think Mercury had a period of geological activity in the past?

Why does earth have such a large moon?

Capture: The Moon’s orbit around the Earth is very close to being circular. The likelihood of this happening with such a relatively large satellite is very low. This material then cooled and coalesced to form the Moon.

Why is the moon poor in iron?

The iron core of the planetesimal joined with the Earth’s core, so only the lighter minerals and elements floated away. That explains not only the lack of iron in the moon but also why the moon is less dense than the Earth.

What are the problems with the giant impact theory?

The problem with the giant-impact hypothesis is that it has difficulty accounting for why the isotopic ratios on the moon look exactly like the ones we see on Earth. Over at The Atlantic, Rebecca Boyle steps through the various potential options, including new work by scientist Sarah Stewart and her student, Simon Lock.

What evidence supports the giant impact hypothesis?

The giant impact hypothesis is currently the favored scientific hypothesis for the formation of the Moon. Supporting evidence includes: Earth’s spin and the Moon’s orbit have similar orientations. Moon samples indicate that the Moon’s surface was once molten.

What is giant impact hypothesis?

The giant impact hypothesis (sometimes referred to as the big whack, or less frequently, the big splash) is the now-dominant scientific theory for the formation of the Moon, which is thought to have formed as a result of a collision between the young Earth and a Mars-sized body that is sometimes called Theia or occasionally Orpheus.

What is a giant impact hypothesis?

The Giant Impact Hypothesis. The current experiments and modeling efforts predominantly use the giant impact hypothesis as the basis of their studies. In other words, approximately 4.5 billion years ago, a collision of the early Earth with a Mars-sized object resulted in the formation of the Earth/Moon system.