New Research Reveals a Chaotic and Wild History Between the Earth and the Moon
Recent explanations of lunar formation outline that a Mars-sized object likely crashed into Earth during its early years, with the wild amount of debris coming from the impact eventually coalescing into the Moon. However, a new theory adds to that wild history.
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00:00Despite the moon being our closest neighbor and only natural satellite, there's still
00:08a whole lot we don't know about it, like precisely where it came from.
00:11Recent explanations outline that a Mars-sized object likely crashed into Earth during its
00:15early years, with the wild amount of debris coming from the impact eventually coalescing
00:20into the moon.
00:21However, a new theory adds to the lunar body's wild history.
00:25According to the theory, when the moon initially formed, it was only around 12,000 miles away,
00:29a far cry from its current orbital path of around 238,000 miles, meaning over the last
00:354.5 billion years, it has drifted further and further.
00:39At the time of its formation, it had a surface of molten magma, which eventually cooled and
00:43solidified into the gray surface we see every night.
00:46The researchers also found that the orbital path of the moon and the material that coalesced
00:50to create it likely changed over time as well.
00:52When the Mars-sized object smashed into Earth, the debris field likely went everywhere.
00:56That means that despite most orbits in the solar system being relatively planar, there
01:00was likely a considerable amount of dust and debris orbiting Earth from pole to pole.
01:04The researchers found that those orbits were also very stable for a time, with the material
01:09existing in that orientation even after the moon formed, due to the stability created
01:13by its proximity.
01:14However, as the moon moved away, they became unstable, eventually succumbing to the sun's
01:19overwhelming influence.