Where is the Moon From?

reply to post by theability

With few exceptions, all of the significant moons in the Solar System are tidally locked to their planets.
en.wikipedia.org...

Tidal locking is an inevitable result of the gravitational forces between one object revolving around another while deep enough within the gravity well for the gradient to be significant.

As a result of tidal locking, the Moon is taking energy from the Earth's rotation and converting it to orbital energy. The Moon's orbit is increasing in radius and the rotation of the Earth is slowing down.

The Moon's orbit is not circular. At perigee it is at a distance of 364,397 km. At apogee it is at a distance of 406,731 km. Depending on its distance at the time of an eclipse, the eclipse can be annular, in which the Moon does not completely cover the disk of the Sun:

Or total, in which it does:


The oldest rocks found on the Moon are 4.46 billion years old. The oldest rocks found on Earth are 4.28 billion years old. As has been pointed out, the surface of the Earth is constantly being recycled whereas that of the Moon is not. The fact that older rocks have been found on the Moon does not mean the Moon is older than the Earth. Isotopic similarities (and differences) between Moon rocks and Earth rocks strongly indicate that the Moon formed after the initial formation of the Earth 4.6 billion years ago as a result of a giant collision about 4.5 billion years ago.

reply to post by davidgrouchy


I learned the rotation of the Moon is just as fast as the rotation of the earth and that's why we always see the same side.

If what you say is true. How those this work for moons from Jupiter for example ?
Jupiter is huge does this mean our Moon does not rotate at all or do Moons from our gas planets rotate very slowly ?

I assume planets like Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus spend more time to complete a day.

Originally posted by Sinter Klaas

I learned the rotation of the Moon is just as fast as the rotation of the earth and that's why we always see the same side.

Yeiks!
May I reprhase
so it is more correct?
The rotation of the Moon is
just as fast as the Period of Moons orbit.
If it was the same speed as earths rotation then
it would never move in our sky and hold the same position.


David Grouchy

reply to post by Phage


So the tidal locking model is common. Thank you for clarifying that.

As for the collision billions of years ago, I still have this thought in my mind that just maybe the moon was caught by earths gravity. I guess this is why the theories continue, because truthfully humans really do not know the origins of the moon do they?

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


Here you go, Sinter:

www.wingmakers.co.nz...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And, here is a lot more to chew on:

www.solarviews.com...

[edit on 3 April 2010 by weedwhacker]

reply to post by Monts


Yes the moon does seem to loom over us at times eh? The more I look at Luna the more I find more questions than answers, such a diverse topic with so many angles of origin, principles of religion, myth, Astrology, prediction of events like eclipses, etc etc.

Little off topic but I found that the first acurate prediction of solar eclipse was in 585 B.C. Now why didn't I learn about that in school? They kept saying ohh we though the world was flat till 1500 A.D. good grief!

Hey tell you cat I have a Chz burger grillin for him

reply to post by theability

Humans may not know the origin of the moon but there is an increasing body of evidence which strongly indicates that the Moon was formed as a result of a giant collision.

No other theories carry as much evidence or have as few "problems" so, for now, a collision is by far the strongest theory.


[edit on 4/3/2010 by Phage]

reply to post by Phage


So the most logical of all hypothesis, would be the giant collision eons ago.

The part that bogels my mind the most, is that there really is an answer to this question.

Amazing place the universe.

Not to back track, then why does the Apollo Preliminary science as I outlined at the begining of the thread, state that little to no similiarity between Earth and Moon, Moon and Meteorite? There is in one of the PSR that even says that comet contact is remote and unlikely as well. [In regard to surface contact]


It seems in all those eons that the moon would have been bombarded by these Solar System Occupants, leaving a calling card for our little excavating teams to go frolic through.

Ahh so much to ponder and she is only a mere quarter million miles one way! AWAY!

Maybe we brought it with us...

When we arrived here?

reply to post by mr-lizard


Awesome!!

WE brought our own MOON!!!

No wonder the controversy...

I only read a few of the comments on the first page, but this is my take on it...

Over 4 billion years ago our planet was just a big ball of molten lava. A big asteroid (or who knows what) hits our soon-to-be planet, knocking a section out which creates the moon. Now, because the moon is smaller than the earth, then that must mean the moon cooled down quicker than the earth, explaining the rocks that are older than here on earth.
Also, the fact that the moon is a different planet exposed to different things than here on earth, it's not surprising it has rocks that aren't found on earth. If earth was smaller, had no atmosphere, etc. I'm sure we would have rocks similar to that of the moons.
Lastly, I did read someone that said something along the lines of "the moon almost seems as if it was placed there on purpose because so many things rely on the moon being there (tides, etc.)". As much as I agree with you, I can't come to say that the moon is artificial. The way I see it, if space is infinite, then there are infinite planets, and if there are infinite planets, it's just bound to happen every once in a while, ya know?

There is a curious fact about history is that there are very, very little cave drawings of the moon, if any.

Even some quotations from history seem to indicate that the moon did not orbit the Earth more than 100,000 years ago, maybe even 30,000 years ago, and in fact was transported to its present place orbiting Earth.







[edit on 3-4-2010 by star in a jar]

Ok, for all you geniuses out there.

If the Moon did, in fact, Come from our Earth as part of a Collision, Where is the Huge Piece missing from our Earth?

Also, What if we had no Moon? How would the affect us and the Planet?

And, If this Planet were to stop Spinning (Rotation of this Planet is Slowing), How would this Impact this Planet? I know one side would always face the Sun but, What other abnormalities would it cause?

Just thinking Outside the Box..

[edit on 3-4-2010 by Damian-007]

All of the questions in this forum have been addressed by the two books by Don Wilson--Our Mysterious Spaceship Moon and Secrets of Our Spaceship Moon.
If you google "before there was a Moon" you will find that ancient civilizations talked about a time before there was a Moon in the sky.
And last but not least, Director Irwin Shapiro of Harvard SAO had said that the Moon is theoretically impossible ! He cannot explain how it got there.

Originally posted by Damian-007
Ok, for all you geniuses out there.

If the Moon did, in fact, Come from our Earth as part of a Collision, Where is the Huge Piece missing from our Earth?

Also, What if we had no Moon? How would the affect us and the Planet?

And, If this Planet were to stop Spinning (Rotation of this Planet is Slowing), How would this Impact this Planet? I know one side would always face the Sun but, What other abnormalities would it cause?

Just thinking Outside the Box..

[edit on 3-4-2010 by Damian-007]

Giant tsunamis, Earts magnetic shield will fail, maybe you should see the movie 2012. It shows almost every possible scenario and it's a fun watch to

Erm
It is either from a..
Collision with our planet and another planet or i think it might have something to do with like on earth how mountains are created ?

KB

Originally posted by GalaxyKB
Erm
It is either from a..
Collision with our planet and another planet or i think it might have something to do with like on earth how mountains are created ?

KB

Like the hole what is now Lake Toba ?

Its from the french. See, in about 1100 AD, the french developed a new method for making cheese which made production much faster. Since cheese is partally bacterial culture, the catalysts which the french threw in made the bacteria reproduce much faster than could be ate.

Eventually the cheese got so big, and less dense that it escaped earths gravity, but was never able to fully escape, which is why its in orbit. The only reason it is hard enough to land on is because it went stale after all those years. Thank the french for making a big ball of cheese to be fought over by the USA and USSR.

Originally posted by Damian-007
Ok, for all you geniuses out there.
If the Moon did, in fact, Come from our Earth as part of a Collision, Where is the Huge Piece missing from our Earth?

Very big things *have* to settle back into a round-ish shape, due to this thing called gravity. That's why none of the planets is square....

Also, What if we had no Moon? How would the affect us and the Planet?

No tides for a start, which would have dramatically affected evolution if that's your thing - possibly even stopped it altogether.

And, If this Planet were to stop Spinning (Rotation of this Planet is Slowing), How would this Impact this Planet? I know one side would always face the Sun but, What other abnormalities would it cause?

Obviously high temperatures on one side, cold on the other, probable loss of atmosphere and oceans..

You wouldn't believe it. I'm watching a movie called "The Neptune Factor", on TV, right while I'm looking at this thread. I know it doesn't have much to with the moon but, there are Earthquakes and "Very Special Effects",( if you can call them that). The Movie was made in 1973..

"Some severe AfterShocks are on their way, Abort Mission Now"..

"Negative, Captain. We've just gone through a River of Sand"..