Scientists at the University of Durham in the UK have found out how the collision of the Earth with a minor planet 4.5 billion years ago led to the appearance of the Moon. The formation of an Earth satellite was modeled using high performance computing on the DiRAC supercomputer. The mystery of the appearance of the moon is revealed in an article published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Researchers tracked the fate of the substance ejected into space for four days after the collision of Earth and Theia, the size of Mars. At the same time, various scenarios were taken into account, depending on the speed of rotation of the minor planet around its axis. It turned out that if Theia did not rotate, then the collision leads to the release of matter, accounting for 80 percent of the mass of the Moon. This substance, under the influence of its own gravity, forms a celestial body. At low rotational speeds, a moon-like object is also formed.
The formed block, which begins to fly in orbit around the Earth, grows after the collision, “feeding” on material from the debris disk surrounding the planet. It has an iron core and an outer shell formed by the matter of the Earth and Theia.
The researchers plan to study other collision scenarios to see what results they will lead to.
