 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Astronomy Question Of The Week: How Was The Moon Created
Bonn, Germany (SPX) Jul 14, 2009 Forty years ago, on 21 July 1969 at 03:56:20 (Central European Time), Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon. All (six to date) Moon landings took place between 1969 and 1972 and a total of 12 people, all of them American astronauts, have walked on the Moon's surface. They brought rock samples from the Moon back to Earth with them. The analysis of this rock was supposed to resolve the question of how the Earth's relatively large Moon was formed. In fact, the rock analyses revealed weaknesses in the three competing theories existing at the time with regard to how the Moon was formed. The 'sibling' theory postulated that the Moon and the Earth were created at almost the same time and in proximity to each other. According to the 'capture' theory, the Moon was formed far from Earth and, while passing by, was bound to the Earth due to its gravity. The 'fission; theory assumed that there was a hot, viscous and rapidly rotating primordial Earth, from which a giant 'drop' broke off and which was later to become the Moon.
The Moon - a "heap of rubble" As a result, material from the rocky mantle of the heavenly body and of the Earth was hurled into space. This collected in the shape of a ring on a path closely orbiting the Earth where it then gradually 'clumped together' to form the Moon. Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links German Aerospace Center Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
Buzz Aldrin: Second man to walk on the moonWashington (AFP) July 12, 2009 A member of the first team to set foot on the moon, astronaut Buzz Aldrin is a staunch advocate of space exploration who once publicly punched a man who claimed the lunar landings were a hoax. "Beautiful, beautiful. Magnificent desolation," he said as he became the second person - just minutes after Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong - to set foot on another world on July 20, 1969. ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2009 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook