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The Moon's heavily cratered far-side. The origin of the Moon is usually explained by a Mars-sized body striking the Earth, creating a debris ring that eventually collected into a single natural satellite, the Moon, but there are a number of variations on this giant-impact hypothesis, as well as alternative explanations, and research continues into how the Moon came to be formed.
Moon samples indicate that the Moon was once molten to a substantial, but unknown, depth. This might have required much more energy than predicted to be available from the accretion of a celestial body of the Moon's size and mass. An extremely energetic process, such as a giant impact, could provide this energy.
In astrophysics, accretion is the accumulation of particles into a massive object by gravitationally attracting more matter, typically gaseous matter, into an accretion disk. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Most astronomical objects , such as galaxies , stars , and planets , are formed by accretion processes.
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite.It orbits at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi), about 30 times the diameter of Earth. Tidal forces between Earth and the Moon have synchronized the Moon's orbital period (lunar month) with its rotation period at 29.5 Earth days, causing the same side of the Moon to always face Earth.
Analyses of the Moon's time-variable rotations indicate that the core is at least partly molten. [6] Within the giant-impact formation scenario, the core formation of Moon could have occurred within the initial 100–1000 years from the commencement of its accretion from its moonlets. [7]
The capture model fails to explain the similarity in these isotopes (if the Moon had originated in another part of the Solar System, those isotopes would have been different), while the co-accretion model cannot adequately explain the loss of water (if the Moon formed similarly to the Earth, the amount of water trapped in its mineral structure ...
Moon landing deniers say there's clear photographic evidence of this, and point out that because there's no breeze on the moon, this must be fake. Apollo 11astronaut Edwin Buzz Aldrin, on the Moon ...
The evolution of moon systems is driven by tidal forces. A moon will raise a tidal bulge in the object it orbits (the primary) due to the differential gravitational force across diameter of the primary. If a moon is revolving in the same direction as the planet's rotation and the planet is rotating faster than the orbital period of the moon ...