Several hypotheses explain the birth of our Moon. A new study reinforces the idea that our satellite is born of a collision between Earth and a celestial body the size of Mars.
To explain the formation of the Moon, the simplest scenario assumes a collision between Earth and a planet the size of Mars, about 100 million years after the birth of the solar system. But still have to get to prove it.
While the composition of the Moon is almost exactly the same as that of the Earth, this scenario implies that 80% of these components should come from the foreign body .
While each body in the solar system has a particular isotopic signature, the probability that an impactor could have the same composition is practically zero.
In fact, one study found that this may be relatively common. “We ran models with a thousand bodies of a hundred kilometers in diameter and about a thousand kilometers,” explains Sean Raymond, CNRS researcher at the Astrophysics Laboratory of Bordeaux and co-author of the study. “We then looked at the major impacts that affected the protoplanet most similar to Earth. In 20-30% of cases, the composition of the impactor was very close. “
With this discovery, it is no longer necessary to have exotic scenarios moon formation that put involved clouds of debris or other.
“It is a work of great importance,” said Marc Chaussidon, a specialist in the Solar System to petrographic and geochemical research Nancy Centre. “It remains to be seen whether the assumptions made in the model are relevant and if we can find the isotopic signatures of other elements such as silicon.”
“We were very excited about our initial results so we have not looked further. But we will now work with the finest models and watch other isotopes to see where it takes us. But I think in five or ten years we will have a realistic modeling of the formation of the Moon, “says Sean Raymond.
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