The galaxies, stars, planets, and not to mention natural satellites, none of them always existed. Gravity is one of the main factors that led to their formation, but some other factors could have also occurred.
Our Moon is no exception. Astronomers know that it had formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago, which makes it roughly the same age as Earth itself. But there’s a chance that our natural satellite formed in a more violent way than our planet.
The Chelyabinsk meteor might have played a role in the collision that led to the Moon’s formation
Surely you’ve heard about the Chelyabinsk meteor. It’s the same space rock that made many windows tremble less than a decade ago when it hit the southern Ural region from Russia. As a new study claims that ScienceAlert.com tells the world about, the space rock might have played a role in the formation of the Moon itself.
Astronomers came with the wild theory after using a new method of dating impacts that occur in space. They could benefit from a new probe for learning more about the early history of the Solar System and even its evolution, thanks to the new possibility of using microscopic analysis of minerals located in meteorites.
Craig Walton, a geoscientist from the University of Cambridge, declared:
Meteorite impact ages are often controversial,
Our work shows that we need to draw on multiple lines of evidence to be more certain about impact histories – almost like investigating an ancient crime scene.
Scientists have known for a pretty long time that the formation of our Moon began after an impact between early Earth and another planet. The leftover debris later gathered due to gravity and started to form the Moon.
The new study was published in Communications Earth & Environment.