The Moon – Origin

Music

JM: The Mayan Indians believed that the sun and the moon both inhabited the earth before changing into celestial bodies. Well, in the case of the moon at least, the Mayans apparently had it right. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

GC: “The theory of the moon that is currently most popular among astronomers and geologists puts the moon in a common origin with the earth.”

JM: Geoff Chester is an astronomer and public affairs officer at the U.S. Naval Observatory.

GC: “When we look at the composition of the moon’s surface and when we look at the bulk density of the moon, we find that it’s very similar to material that is in the mantle of the earth, the part that surrounds the molten iron core of the earth, very rich in the salts and other minerals. So this tells us that there is a common origin and that origin was probably in the upper areas of the earth body. We are fairly certain that the planets condensed out of eddies of material in a primordial solar nebula, a cloud of gas and dust around the forming sun. And the earth and the moon formed in the same part of space, and were originally one congealed body. But in the early history of the solar system, there were lots and lots of other things whizzing around in there and they had a tendency to bump into things, and an object perhaps the size of Mars bumped into the earth. In the process of that bumping it kind of struck a glancing blow and it peeled off a sizeable blob of material. Which eventually coalesced into the moon and went into orbit around the earth.

JM: Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

The Moon - Origin

In the early stages of our galaxy, celestial bodies had a habit of colliding with each other. Scientists think that's how we got our moon.

Air Date:03/01/2001

Scientist:

Transcript:

The Moon - Origin

Music

JM: The Mayan Indians believed that the sun and the moon both inhabited the earth before changing into celestial bodies. Well, in the case of the moon at least, the Mayans apparently had it right. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

GC: "The theory of the moon that is currently most popular among astronomers and geologists puts the moon in a common origin with the earth."

JM: Geoff Chester is an astronomer and public affairs officer at the U.S. Naval Observatory.

GC: "When we look at the composition of the moon's surface and when we look at the bulk density of the moon, we find that it's very similar to material that is in the mantle of the earth, the part that surrounds the molten iron core of the earth, very rich in the salts and other minerals. So this tells us that there is a common origin and that origin was probably in the upper areas of the earth body. We are fairly certain that the planets condensed out of eddies of material in a primordial solar nebula, a cloud of gas and dust around the forming sun. And the earth and the moon formed in the same part of space, and were originally one congealed body. But in the early history of the solar system, there were lots and lots of other things whizzing around in there and they had a tendency to bump into things, and an object perhaps the size of Mars bumped into the earth. In the process of that bumping it kind of struck a glancing blow and it peeled off a sizeable blob of material. Which eventually coalesced into the moon and went into orbit around the earth.

JM: Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.