Abstract
Of the many proposed modes of origin of the Moon, some violate physical laws; many are in conflict with observations; all are improbable. Perhaps the least improbable - based on recent tidal theory calculations and on the interpretation of lunar rock data - is capture of the Moon as it passed near the Earth in adirect (prograde) orbit, shortly after the formation of Moon and Earth, about 4.5 billion years ago. (Capture of the Moon from an initiallyretrograde orbit which had been proposed some years ago, leads to physically unacceptable consequences.) The effects of capture on the Earth would have been cataclysmic, leading to intensive heating of its interior, to volcanism, and to the immediate formation of an atmosphere and hydrosphere. Thus capture of a Moon may have given rise to the unique properties of the Earth (in the Solar System) and to the early evolution of life, about 3.5 billion years ago.
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Selected references
Fission Theory
Wise, D. V.: 1969, ‘Origin of the Moon from the Earth: Some New Mechanisms and Comparisons’,J. Geophys. Res. 74, 6034.
O'Keefe, J. A.: 1970, ‘The Origin of the Moon’,ibid. 75, 6565.
Precipitation Theory
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See also
Singer, S. F.: 1971, ‘Discussion of Paper by A. E. Ringwood, “Petrogenesis of Apollo 11 Basalts and Implications for Lunar Origin”’,J. Geophys. Res. 76, 8071.
Ringwood, A. E.: 1971, ‘Reply’,ibid. 76, 8075.
Goldreich, P.: 1966, ‘History of the Lunar Orbit’,Rev. Geophys. 4, 411.
Capture Theory
Gerstenkorn, H.: 1955, ‘Über Gezeitenreibung beim Zweikörperproblem’,Z. Astrophys. 36, 245.
MacDonald, G. J. F.: 1964, ‘Tidal Friction’,Rev. Geophys. 2, 467.
Singer, S. F.: 1968, ‘The Origin of the Moon and Geophysical Consequences’,Geophys. J. 15, 205.
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Cloud, P. E., Jr.: 1968, ‘Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Evolution on the Primitive Earth’,Science 160, 729.
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Urey, H. C. and MacDonald, G. J. F.: 1971, ‘Origin and History of the Moon’, inPhysics and Astronomy of the Moon, 2nd ed., (ed. by Z. Kopal), Academic Press, New York, p. 213.
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Singer, S.F. Origin of the moon by tidal capture and some geophysical consequences. The Moon 5, 206–209 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00562114
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00562114