Tim Sayell sends in a Yahoo News article that makes some startling conclusions - Earth at one point in its early history had more than one moon. The second moon was most likely very small and may have collided with its larger Luna companion. This would go a long way towards explaining why the Moon's surface is so different from one hemisphere to the next.
From the article:
The second moon ... would have been about 750 miles wide and could have formed from the same collision between the planet and a Mars-sized object that scientists suspect helped create the moon we see in the sky today
The Wikipedia has a great article dealing with the science of Earth having more than one moon here
picture from popsci
From the article:
The second moon ... would have been about 750 miles wide and could have formed from the same collision between the planet and a Mars-sized object that scientists suspect helped create the moon we see in the sky today
The Wikipedia has a great article dealing with the science of Earth having more than one moon here
picture from popsci
2 comments:
At 750mi this is kinda non news???
Oh come on John! where is your sense of adventure, curiosity or wonder. There are many much smaller satellites to other bodies in the solar system. The amazement is that it existed at all! That our sky at some point had a couple of moons. Plus consider the titanic explosion when Luna and this smaller moon collided?! When is that NOT news!
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