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> People dismiss that as astronomically unlikely, but it must have happened many times somewhere in the universe It's hypothesised that a Mars-sized planet onc
by charliesome 7y ago
> People dismiss that as astronomically unlikely, but it must have happened many times somewhere in the universe
It's hypothesised that a Mars-sized planet once collided with Earth in the early history of the solar system (about 4.5 billion years ago), creating our moon today:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant-impact_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant-impact_hypothesis
- perl4ever 7y agoRight, and a more recent paper suggests the reason for the seas on the near side of the moon is that the earth temporarily shone like a star, whereas the moon being smaller cooled faster overall. So the moon was melted by earthshine.
- sliken 7y agoNot sure that quite meets this definition, but there's a newly named object Synestia that sounds pretty similar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synestia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synestia
- perl4ever 7y agoA very close sub-brown dwarf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISE_0855%E2%88%920714 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISE_0855%E2%88%920714
- ryan_j_naughton 7y ago> So the moon was melted by earthshine. Do you have any links with more info on this?