Mastodawn

myrmepropagandist Jan 12, 2023

The moon formed when Theia hit the earth. The surface of the moon is mostly material from the #earth with the same isotopes... but if we could drill into the moon... we could find some of #Theia according to some models of the collision.

Theia is still here! Just covered in a super thick earthy sweater.

I don't know why I find this so exciting-- it's probably not going to be anything shocking...

I guess Theia always seemed... vanished into the deep past. But Theia remains. #musings #moon

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berndandeweg Jan 12, 2023

@futurebird but it remains a mystery still why the moon in chemistry and isotopes resembles so much our mantle. If you want to cover Theia with earth material, the moon should be more dense than it is. So the only possibility is that Theia (if it existed) should have had nearly the same composition as Earth.

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myrmepropagandist Jan 12, 2023

@berndandeweg I thought the impact theory was pretty much accepted… or that at least it’s the best of the known theories thus far?

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Mal 甄/kalessin/Peri Jan 12, 2023

@futurebird @berndandeweg I also thought it was difficult to still explain the moon's stable orbit with the impact theory. That was why I thought it was accretion from similar material.

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Mihailik 🌼🌼🌼🏃🏿‍♀️🌼🌼🌼

@perigee @futurebird @berndandeweg

This documentary is amazing, greatly entertaining and informative too.

https://youtu.be/Ghd8H-KvwVA

Catastrophe - Episode 1 - Birth of the Planet

YouTube

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Mihailik 🌼🌼🌼🏃🏿‍♀️🌼🌼🌼Jan 12, 2023

@perigee @futurebird @berndandeweg

Must be a bit outdated by now, but those models from 10y ago favoured the Moon accreted from hot liquid/vaporised rock halo.

That'd definitely give stable orbit (friction evens out kinetic anomalies).

And that would leave only very generic and faint traces of Theia. It's melted like Arnold.