One hypothesis for the origin of the moon is that the moon and the Earth were on
ID: 1296711 • Letter: O
Question
One hypothesis for the origin of the moon is that the moon and the Earth were once one body, which split into two (the Gutierrez Theory). If we consider the Earth and moon an isolated system, how long was the day before the split?
(Assume that the Earth-moon body was perfectly spherical before the split and has the same average density that the earth does now.) All the information you need is on the back cover of the book, or in the book. (I
One hypothesis for the origin of the moon is that the moon and the Earth were once one body, which split into two (the Gutierrez Theory). If we consider the Earth and moon an isolated system, how long was the day before the split? (Assume that the Earth-moon body was perfectly spherical before the split and has the same average density that the earth does now.) All the information you need is on the back cover of the book, or in the book. (I?????ve also attached astronomydata.pdf if you don?????t have the book).Explanation / Answer
In 1898, George Darwin made the suggestion that the Earth and Moon had once been one body. Darwin's hypothesis was that a molten Moon had been spun from the Earth because ofcentrifugal forces, and this became the dominant academic explanation.[7] Using Newtonian mechanics, he calculated that the Moon had orbited much more closely in the past and was drifting away from the Earth. This drifting was later confirmed by American and Soviet experiments, using laser ranging targets placed on the Moon.
Nonetheless, Darwin's calculations could not resolve the mechanics required to trace the Moon backward to the surface of the Earth. In 1946, Reginald Aldworth Daly of Harvard Universitychallenged Darwin's explanation, adjusting it to postulate that the creation of the Moon was caused by an impact rather than centrifugal forces.[8] Little attention was paid to Professor Daly's challenge until a conference on satellites in 1974, during which the idea was reintroduced and later published and discussed in Icarus in 1975 by Drs. William K. Hartmann andDonald R. Davis. Their models suggested that, at the end of the planet formation period, several satellite-sized bodies had formed that could collide with the planets or be captured. They proposed that one of these objects may have collided with the Earth, ejecting refractory, volatile-poor dust that could coalesce to form the Moon. This collision could potentially explain the unique geological and geochemical properties of the Moon.[9]
A similar approach was taken by Canadian astronomer Alastair G. W. Cameron and American astronomer William R. Ward, who suggested that the Moon was formed by the tangential impact upon Earth of a body the size of Mars. It is hypothesized that most of the outer silicates of the colliding body would be vaporized, whereas a metallic core would not. Hence, most of the collisional material sent into orbit would consist of silicates, leaving the coalescing Moon deficient in iron. The more volatile materials that were emitted during the collision probably would escape the Solar System, whereas silicates would tend to coalesce.
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