Moon Geology : Spliting moon

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tite

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Hello, i want to ask about moon geology, i heard a rumor(may be) there was research on moon geology that found out the moon was saperated into two piece long time ago.<br /><br />if that true can you give me the infomation about it or artikel that related to the topic. Thanks for the time.
 
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willpittenger

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Well, current theories have the moon formed when a planet the size of Mars collided with the Earth. The Moon then formed out of the debris. So it would have at one time been at lot of pieces -- not just two.<br /><br />Now there are moons in the outer solar system that we are confident that were broken up and later reformed. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>
 
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3488

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We cannot say 100% sure that is true.<br /><br />Yes it is an idea, but Miranda could have been hit by former co-orbitals (the coronae<br />are in the correct positions) & also Miranda appears to have a large area of intact ancient <br />cratered terrain.<br /><br />Co-orbitals are not unusual, like Saturn's Tethys has Telesto & Calypso, Saturn's <br />Dione has Helene & Polydeuces.<br /><br />Miranda likewise may have had similar co-orbitals, that ended up impacting Miranda.<br /><br />Maybe both things have happened?<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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yevaud

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An impactor splitting a body of the size and mass of the moon would require the impact forces to exceed the Gravitational Binding Energy of the impacted body.<br /><br />I generally don't like to use Wikipedia, but their page on this subject is accurate. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>
 
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3488

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Hi Yevaud,<br /><br />Very true indeed.<br /><br />The Moon, is the second densest planetary satellite in the entire solar system 3.34 Gcm3<br />(only beaten slightly by Jupiter's Io 3.57 Gcm3), so not a huge amount less than Mars @ 3.95 Gcm3.<br /><br />This is more than dense enough for the Moon to have a core of metal.<br /><br />The moon is far too large, massive & dense to just be split apart.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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yevaud

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The rule of thumb I was taught was that to fragment the moon, you would require an impacting body of at least the mass of the moon (at low impact velocities), or lesser mass (but at much higher impact velocities).<br /><br />Splitting the moon in twain would be a hell of a thing. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>
 
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