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| Two Moons |
Most of us will say earth had one moon as we see today. But according to a new hypothesis that is wrong. The journal Nature suggests the existence of more than one moon. This new idea has tried to solve a mysterious puzzle of the difference in the near and far sides of moon. So, when and how did Mother Earth lose its companion ?
Erik Asphaug and Martin Jutzi from the University of California, Santa Cruz have come up with a new hypothesis claiming lunar far-side highlands are solid remains of collision with a smaller companion of it, i.e., the earth once had two satelites that crashed and formed the moon leaving it uneven on both sides(one side plain and other a highland area).
Two surfaces of Moon
To show the origin of the moon Asphaug and Jutzi say, a mars-like planet called Theia once collided with proto-earth once in solar-system's history and thus ejecting a lot of debris into the earth's orbit which coalesced to form the Moon.
Mars-like Planet Theia crashing with the Earth
But with this Asphaug and Jutzi also say that it also created another small satellite which shared orbit with moon. They eventually collided forming a coating on moon with an extra surface layer 10 miles thick.
But we know that such crashes form depressions rather than forming mountains don't they? Then how could this happen just the opposite of theories? Have theories and laws by man been proved wrong by these celestial bodies and their collision? No. Actually Asphaug and Jutzi state that only crashes with high speeds make craters while the type of collision of moon and the small satelite was a odd one being slow and splatting material to one side and thus we see such a difference in between two surfaces of moon.
The researchers hypothesize that the companion moon was initially trapped in a gravitationally stable "Trojan point."
It became destabilized after the moon's orbit expanded away from the Earth, something it's still doing today at a rate of about three centimeters (1.8 inches) per year.
Asphaug and Jotzi believe the impact would have made the moon lopsided and reoriented so one side faces Earth.
Asphaug and Jutzi's model also shows the impact squishing a molten subsurface layer over to the Earth-facing side of the moon.
Sarah Maddison of Melbourne's Swinburne University said, "While it's not proof that this is what's happened, from their models, they seem to explain quite a few things including the dichotomy in the composition of the moon's crust." She also says that Trojan orbit also makes the idea of a low-speed impact feasible.
She also said that as the two moons were both in same orbit they moved at same speed around the earth.
According to Maddison, last week's discovery of the first Trojan asteroid orbiting with the Earth around the sun helps strengthen the idea.
But when we go for the old epics we only find the existence of one moon and not two anywhere. Who knows what has happened in history and how had God designed this universe and how had he wanted things to happen? For God even makes such miracles that are beyond the thinking power of any man and that leads to creation of many misbeliefs. Only God knows how many moons earth had earlier, man cannot use his intelligence to find it.
[Image Courtesy : Mantoos.com, evo.beyondgenes.com]
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