For a long time, people have thought that the Earth only had one Moon, and that this was formed after a large impact caused part of the Earth to break away to eventually form the Moon. Now though a team of researchers have come up with a new theory. The new Moon formation theory states that the Earth had previous moons collide to form the Moon.
The group of researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Weizmann Institute of Science has said that the Earth had previous moons that then eventually collided to form the Moon. The team is made up of Professor Hagai Perets from Technion, Professor Raluca Rufo and Oded Aharonson from the Weizmann Institute. Professor Rufo is lead author of the study.
The findings of the team have been based on a model they have worked on. In the model they have shown that the Earth had a series of moons. These moons then collided with the Earth or each other to eventually form the present Moon. The model they have made has been the same with the current notion on how the Moon has been formed.
A current theory about how the Moon was formed is that the Earth had collisions with other objects. These collisions gradually formed the Moon, according to Science Daily. This is in contrast to the theory that the Earth had an impact with a large object, from which then material was ejected to form the Moon.
The new theory holds that the Earth had a previously formed moon, and that another object collided with it to yet form another moon. This process went on in the early solar system until the present Moon has been made. The theory also holds that the previous moon would have gradually moved away from the Earth, which exposed it to collision with other objects, as News Wise reports.
There is still much speculation on how the early solar system was. One of those speculations involve the Moon formation theory. The theory holds that the Earth had previous moons collide to form the Moon. Solar storms could also disturb the Moon's soil.
