A New Study Suggests Earth Had Many 'Moon-lets" In The Past, Which Merged To Form Our Moon!

Our moon, which lies at the center of many spiritual beliefs, cultural symbols, and calendars has always been there, a steady fixture in the night sky for as long as man has been on the planet. But it may not have been always there if we are to believe a new study, which concluded that our moon is the merger of almost a dozen small "moon-lets" which orbited our planet in the distant past! ___

http://ift.tt/2ieufAl ___ **An artistic depiction of a collision between two planetary bodies that will form a new moon, while a pre-existing moon already orbits the proto-Earth** [[Photo Source]](http://ift.tt/2iWep1e) ___ Scientists long thought that a giant celestial body, about the size of Mars, slammed into the early Earth, spraying debris out into space which eventually formed the moon, according to the classic model of thought as to the moons origins. But now, as scientists examined the composition of moon rocks more and more closely over the years, it dawned on them that the giant-impact model, as that canonical story is called, may be too simplistic and a new study has concluded that a series of smaller collisions may have formed "moon-lets" which, in turn, merged into the final, larger moon that orbits Earth today. The researchers conducted nearly 1,000 computer simulations and have estimated that about 20 impacts could have been sufficient to do the job. They say that would explain why the moon seems to be composed of material from Earth, rather than some other planet. ___ http://ift.tt/2iesenN ___ **This graphic illustrates how the moon may have formed after multiple collisions on Earth. Moon- to Mars-sized impactors strike the Earth and leave a disk of debris orbiting the planet. The debris forms "moonlets" and migrate farther away from the Earth due to a tidal interaction, but eventually settle at a distance known as the Hill radius. Here, the moonlets merge to eventually form the moon.** [[Photo Source]](http://ift.tt/2iWep1e) ___ **Sources for the post and further reading** ___ 1. http://ift.tt/2igp8D1 2. http://ift.tt/2ihfqQI 3. http://ift.tt/2igglAZ 4. http://ift.tt/2iWep1e 5. http://ift.tt/2ieuBXC ___ If you like my work, please up-vote and read more at @norbu. You may also click the down-arrow next to my name (before my reputation score below) to follow me. Or you may just re-steem to share the love! 😊 ___ http://ift.tt/eA8V8J http://ift.tt/2ihpgSK

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