Kissing moons may explain why Earth's moon is so large (www.cbc.ca)
from fossilesque@mander.xyz to astronomy@mander.xyz on 11 Mar 13:43
https://mander.xyz/post/26280778

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anindefinitearticle@sh.itjust.works on 11 Mar 17:37 collapse

The Earth’s moon is believed to have formed from a similar process, the researchers explained in a written statement, but it was more like a slap in the face rather than a kiss.

See above caveat from the article that makes the title a bit misleading.

A kiss-and-capture scenario works for Pluto-Charon because those two planets are so compositionally different.

The Earth and Moon are so compositionally similar, that in an impact scenario they would have needed to exchange a lot of material. It would need to be a catastrophic impact, not just a kissing/glancing blow. More of an explosive round that penetrates and detonates its energy. Boom and reform, not just a slap to the face.

Alternatively, somehow they formed from the same collection of material in an eddy in the protoplanetary disk. We’ve been seeing a lot of binary rogue planets with JWST., and still don’t understand the binary planet formation that we now observe to be common.

toast@retrolemmy.com on 11 Mar 19:44 collapse

*rogue

anindefinitearticle@sh.itjust.works on 11 Mar 21:03 collapse

merci