Pioneering scientists from Durham University’s Institute for Computational Cosmology used the most detailed supercomputer simulations yet to reveal an alternative explanation for the Moon's origin, 4.5 billion years ago. It revealed that a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body could immed
Pioneering scientists from Durham University’s Institute for Computational Cosmology used the most detailed supercomputer simulations yet to reveal an alternative explanation for the Moon’s origin, 4.5 billion years ago. It revealed that a giant impact between Earth and aHigh-end simulations
The extra computational power revealed that lower-resolution simulations can miss out on crucial aspects of large-scale collisions. With high-resolution simulations, researchers can discover features that weren’t accessible in previous studies. Only the high-resolution simulations produced the Moon-like satellite, and the extra detail revealed how its outer layers contained more material originating from the Earth.
Co-author of the study, Vincent Eke, said: “This formation route could help explain the similarity in isotopic composition between the lunar rocks returned by the Apollo astronauts and Earth’s mantle. There may also be observable consequences for the thickness of the lunar crust, which would allow us to pin down further the type of collision that took place.”
The Moon is thought to have formed after a collision between the young Earth and a Mars-sized object, called Theia, 4.5 billion years ago. Most theories construct the Moon by a gradual accumulation of the debris from this impact. However, this has been challenged by measurements of lunar rocks showing their composition is like that of Earth’s mantle, while the impact produces debris that mostly comes from Theia.
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