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    Origin of Moon

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    spiraldao
    The Moon likely formed from debris ejected during a giant impact between the early Earth and a Mars-sized impactor called Theia. Simulations show such an impact could produce enough circumterrestrial debris to form the Moon. The debris would have contracted into a disk and moonlets may have formed within the Roche limit that eventually coalesced into the Moon. While issues remain around composition similarities, dynamical models can explain the high angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system through capture in an evection resonance. Giant impacts may have been common in the early Solar System and evidence of their effects can be seen on other planets, offering opportunities to detect signatures of past giant impacts around other stars.

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    Origin of Moon

    Uploaded by

    spiraldao
    46 views15 pages
    The Moon likely formed from debris ejected during a giant impact between the early Earth and a Mars-sized impactor called Theia. Simulations show such an impact could produce enough circumterrestrial debris to form the Moon. The debris would have contracted into a disk and moonlets may have formed within the Roche limit that eventually coalesced into the Moon. While issues remain around composition similarities, dynamical models can explain the high angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system through capture in an evection resonance. Giant impacts may have been common in the early Solar System and evidence of their effects can be seen on other planets, offering opportunities to detect signatures of past giant impacts around other stars.

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    Origin of moon, science, life, space, solar system

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    Origin of moon

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    The Moon likely formed from debris ejected during a giant impact between the early Earth and a Mars-sized impactor called Theia. Simulations show such an impact could produce enough circumterrestrial debris to form the Moon. The debris would have contracted into a disk and moonlets may have formed within the Roche limit that eventually coalesced into the Moon. While issues remain around composition similarities, dynamical models can explain the high angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system through capture in an evection resonance. Giant impacts may have been common in the early Solar System and evidence of their effects can be seen on other planets, offering opportunities to detect signatures of past giant impacts around other stars.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    46 views15 pages

    Origin of Moon

    Uploaded by

    spiraldao
    The Moon likely formed from debris ejected during a giant impact between the early Earth and a Mars-sized impactor called Theia. Simulations show such an impact could produce enough circumterrestrial debris to form the Moon. The debris would have contracted into a disk and moonlets may have formed within the Roche limit that eventually coalesced into the Moon. While issues remain around composition similarities, dynamical models can explain the high angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system through capture in an evection resonance. Giant impacts may have been common in the early Solar System and evidence of their effects can be seen on other planets, offering opportunities to detect signatures of past giant impacts around other stars.

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    Origin of the Moon

    Mark Wyatt

    The Earth-Moon system


    The Moon orbits the Earth at
    amoon = 385,000 km
    with an eccentricity of 0.05, inclination
    to ecliptic of 5o
    The Earth orbits the Sun at
    aearth = 150,000,000 km
    Earths Hill sphere (the distance at
    which objects are no longer
    gravitationally bound) is at
    Rhill = aearth (Mearth / 3Msun)1/3
    = 1,500,000 km
    So Moon is well within this limit at
    Rhill / 4, though note that orbits
    beyond Rhill / 2 are unstable

    Roche radius
    The Roche radius is the distance at
    which tidal forces on a satellite are
    greater than its self-gravity and so
    would tear it apart
    For a solid satellite
    Rroche = 1.26 Rearth (earth / satellite)1/3
    = 9,500 km
    For a fluid satellite
    Rroche = 2.44 Rearth (earth / satellite)1/3
    = 18,400 km
    The Moon is ~20x beyond these limits

    The Moon compared with other moons


    There are other moons that are
    bigger than our Moon, but these
    orbit giant planets that are much
    bigger than the Earth

    Our Moon is large compared with the size of the parent planet: Mmoon = Mearth / 80
    Other moons all have mass ratios < Mpl / 4000
    apart from Charon which is half the size of Pluto (and Mcharon = Mpluto / 8)

    Angular momentum in Earth-Moon


    Orbital angular momentum:
    JorbEM ~ Mmoon [G Mearth amoon]1/2 (plus Mmoon/Mearth terms)
    = 2.9 x 1034 kg m2 / s
    Rotational angular momentum of solid homogeneous body:
    JrotE ~ 4 Mearth Rearth2 / 5 Prot
    = 7.1 x 1033 kg m2 / s

    (but most objects have higher density cores)

    JrotM ~ JrotE / (80 * 3.72 * 27 ) = JrotE / 30,000 so is negligible


    So, most of the angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system is in the orbital
    motion, which is in contrast to other moons in the solar system (e.g., for Jupiters
    moons Jorb < Jrot / 100)

    Tides
    Rotation period is exactly equal to its
    orbital period of 27 days
    Synchronous rotation means Moon
    keeps same face to us, and is the
    result of tidal evolution
    Tides dissipate energy which causes
    orbit to recede at a rate 38mm/year
    Angular momentum is conserved
    Jtot ~ JorbEM + JrotE and dJtot/dt=0
    so Earths spin is also slowing (days
    are lengthening by 23s/year)

    Where did the Moon start?


    In past Earth was spinning faster and Moon was closer to the Earth;
    constant recession over 4.5Gyr would imply Moon started at 214,000 km
    Actually dissipation would have been faster
    when closer, with simple model of a bulge
    leading the motion of the Moon giving
    da/dt ~ a-7 (Porb/ProtE 1)
    leading to tidal catastrophe
    Also tidal energy loss comes out as heat
    (which is why Io is so volcanic), so tidal
    dissipation would have melted Earth

    When did the Moon form?


    Studies of lunar rocks give
    oldest ages at 30-100Myr after
    the Solar System formed

    Protoplanetary disks disperse over


    ~5Myr, so Moon formed after disk
    dispersal, and also after meteorites
    and terrestrial planets formed

    Terrestrial planet formation: stage 1


    HL Tau
    Stars are born with
    protoplanetary disks made of
    gas and m-sized dust
    Experiments show that dust
    grains stick to each other
    when they collide at
    anticipated velocities, and that
    growth to cm-size is easy
    But growth beyond metresizes is prevented by bouncing
    and strong radial drift

    Terrestrial planet formation: stage 2


    As soon as km-sized
    planetesimals form, it is easy
    to grow them into planets
    They undergo runaway
    growth due to gravitational
    focussing, then oligarchic
    growth
    Formation of something that
    looks like the Solar Systems
    terrestrial planets is relatively
    easy, albeit with some
    restrictions (e.g., mass of
    Mars, low eccentricities)

    Constraints on Moon formation


    Mass: Mmoon = Mearth / 80
    Angular momentum: High JEM / MEM compared with other planets
    Age: ~50Myr
    Lack of volatiles: very dry (no water except from comets?)
    Lack of Iron: density is 3.3g/cm3 implies 0.25x cosmic abundance of Fe,
    much less than Earth
    Oxygen isotopes: 17O / 18O are identical to Earth, but these vary with position
    in the Solar System and so in protoplanetary disk
    Magma ocean: Apollo rocks showed that Moon melted early in history
    forming a low density crust, denser mantle, maybe metallic core

    Formation scenarios: Co-accretion


    Idea: During accretion of the Earth, a circumterrestrial disk of
    planetesimals was formed out of which the Moon accreted

    Problems: How could Earth acquire a disk with such high angular
    momentum? Age of Moon. Chemical composition would be same as
    Earth

    Formation scenarios: Fission


    Idea: Rapidly rotating Earth undergoes fission, perhaps triggered by Solar
    tides, whereupon Moon receded from Earth due to tides

    Problems: Dynamically implausible, viscosity damps resonant motion


    supposed to trigger fission

    Formation scenarios: Capture


    Idea: The Moon was a planetary embryo formed in a different (but nearby) part
    of the Solar System which was captured into orbit around the Earth

    Problem: Low Fe of Moon, more likely to be captured on wide orbit (and requires
    third body to take energy away), no heating of Moon

    All scenarios have precedents


    Jupiters
    regular
    moons
    thought
    to have
    formed
    in a
    protojovian
    disk

    Its
    irregular
    satellites
    are
    thought
    to be
    captured
    asteroids
    and
    comets

    Binary asteroids may have formed by fission


    But these are
    different to
    the Moon

    Formation scenarios: Giant Impact


    Idea: Solve the problems of the
    co-accretion scenario by creating a
    circumterrestrial disk in a collision
    with a Mars-sized impactor (Theia)
    when Earth was 90% of its
    current mass
    If Earth was differentiated then
    explains lack of Fe in Moon since
    this formed from mantle
    Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics
    (SPH) simulations show that the
    formation of such a disk is
    plausible (Canup et al. 2001)

    Evolution of circumterrestrial disk

    Kokubo et al. (2000)

    Disk contracts through collisional damping


    Particle clumps grow inside Rroche but shear out to form spiral structure
    Gravitational torques push particles beyond Rroche where moonlets form
    Moonlets coalesce; lunar seed sweeps up all particles pushed >Rroche
    When Moon large enough, pushes inner disk onto Earth
    Formation timescale is ~1month (ignoring melting/vaporisation)

    Plausibility of collision
    As long as a circumterrestrial disk forms with 2-4 times lunar mass within
    the Roche radius, then an object like the Moon will coalesce out of it
    Mearth

    Collisions are expected during final stages of formation of terrestrial planets


    (e.g., Kenyon & Bromley 2006), but would have to be a high impact parameter and
    mass ratio to strip mantle, maybe ~1% chance?
    Reasonable odds given we observe just one system, and maybe appeal to
    anthropic principle if the Moons existence favours the development of life
    then we would be more likely to be observing from a planet with a Moon

    Niggling composition concerns


    Part of the
    impactor always
    goes into the
    circumterrestrial
    disk
    So why is isotopic
    composition of Moon so
    similar to that of the
    Earth?
    Is it likely that even
    nearby embryo would
    have such similar
    composition? Perhaps
    20% probability
    (Mastrobuono-Battisti et al. 2015)

    Explanation 1: Protolunar disk physics


    Diffusion of Earth and protolunar isotopic systems through disk
    atmosphere (Pahlevan & Stevenson 2007)
    But, required diffusion may
    be self-limiting due to mass
    and angular momentum
    transfer, and highly
    refractory elements like Ti
    must also be homogenised
    (but not water)

    Similar idea has only the equilibriation only occurring for


    the last moonlets accreted onto the Moon giving a late
    veneer of isotopically similar material (Salmon & Canup 2012)

    10

    Explanation 2: Different collision parameters


    Not all collisions end up with Theia in protolunar disk, but most also end
    up with a system with too much angular momentum
    Invoke capture of
    Moon in evection
    resonance (Cuk & Stewart
    2012) which can halve
    angular momentum in
    Earth-Moon system by
    exchanging it within
    the Sun-Earth-Moon
    system

    Evection resonance is between the Moons orbital precession period and the
    Earths orbital period

    Explanation 2: Different collision parameters


    EG1: 20km/s collision of 0.05Mearth
    impactor onto proto-Earth spinning
    close to rotational instability at 2.5hr
    period (Cuk & Stewart 2012)

    EG2: 4km/s collision of two


    0.5Mearth planets (Canup 2012)

    But could Earth be spinning that fast (probably requires previous giant impact),
    and would embryos be similar enough in mass?

    11

    Other giant impacts in the Solar System


    While origin of Moon is unsolved, all theories invoke a giant impact at ~50Myr,
    and giant impacts appear to be a common feature in the Solar System
    Mars hemispheric dichotomy (Marinova et al. 2008)
    Mercury Fe-rich composition
    (Asphaug et al. 2006)

    Uranus tilt (Parisi &


    Brunini 1997)

    Pluto Charon system (Canup 2011)

    Are extrasolar giant impacts observable?


    What do giant
    impacts do?

    Evidence in Solar
    System

    Potential extrasolar
    observable

    Formation of moons

    Earth Moon and Pluto


    Charon forming impacts

    Transit timing variations from


    exomoons (Kipping, Nesvorny, et al.)

    Modify internal planet


    composition

    Mercury Fe-rich
    composition

    Planetary densities from RV


    +transits

    Modify planet surface

    Mars hemispheric
    dichotomy

    Too subtle?

    Modify planetary
    atmosphere

    Magma ocean?

    Hot planet spectrum (Anic et al.

    Modify planetary spin

    Uranus tilt

    Exoplanet spins are


    measurable (Snellen et al. 2014)

    Create debris

    Hirayama asteroid
    families, dust bands

    Infrared signature (Jackson & Wyatt

    2007; Miller-Ricci et al. 2009)

    2012)

    12

    Dynamical evolution of impact debris


    Take outcome of Moon-forming simulation and follow evolution of 1.6% of
    Earth mass of escaping debris using N-body (Jackson & Wyatt 2012)

    After 10Myr 45% of particles lost, of which: accretion onto Earth (45%),
    accretion by Venus (40%, so resurface to 10km), ejection by Jupiter (15%)

    Detectability of Earth-Moon impact debris


    Detectability
    depends on
    quantity of dust
    cross-sectional
    area (not mass),
    so size distribution
    is very important
    Debris also
    depletes due to
    mutual collisions,
    the rate of which
    depends on the
    size distribution

    If debris is small the excess is


    large and decays fasts; e.g., 30%
    of mass is vaporised and
    condenses into ~1cm grains
    (Johnson & Melosh 2014)
    Larger debris (SPH
    simulations suggest 70%
    of mass is in rubble up to
    500km) is fainter but still
    detectable, for 10s of Myr

    Detectability threshold

    13

    How does that compare with observed systems?


    Moon-forming
    impact

    F24 obs / F24 *

    Impact just
    after disk
    dispersal

    24m excesses
    are observed
    around nearby
    predominantly
    young
    (<200Myr)
    stars, at a level
    and epoch
    consistent with
    expectations of
    giant impacts

    Age (Myr)

    HD172555: Compositional evidence for impact

    Spectrum of this 12Myr


    A5V star shows dust
    composition dominated
    by silica (Lisse et al. 2009)
    This points to recent
    collision at >10km/s
    between two massive
    (>Mars-mass)
    protoplanets; e.g.,
    Earth-moon forming
    collision

    14

    How common are Moon-forming impacts?


    Fraction of 10-100Myr stars with 12m emission at level expected from
    giant impacts (Kennedy & Wyatt 2013): ~ 3%
    Fraction of those stars for which the emission is from giant impacts (not
    asteroid belts): <100%
    Fraction of 10-100Myr period the Solar System exhibited detectable
    emission: ~30%
    Thus, fraction of stars with similar evolution to the Solar System: <10%
    So, either late giant impacts are rare (planetary systems emerge from the
    protoplanetary disk fully formed and stable), or terrestrial planet
    formation is rare, or we got something wrong!

    Conclusions
    (1)

    Moon likely formed from a giant


    impact; such impacts are expected in
    terrestrial planet formation models

    (2)

    That giant impact had to have quite


    specific parameters to satisfy
    angular momentum and composition
    constraints, and our understanding
    is changing quickly (see Asphaug
    2014, AREPS, 42, 551)

    (3)

    Giant impact debris is detectable


    around nearby stars, but few stars
    exhibit such events suggesting that
    late-stage (10-100Myr) Moon-forming
    impacts are rare

    15

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