It is a popular belief that all planets, including the Sun, were formed some forty-five million years ago, from a circumstellar disk of dust which was rotating around the Sun in the outer space.
According to this theory, all the planets should be revolving around the Sun in the same plane.
But, the moon is revolving around the earth at a five-degree-angle from the plane in which the earth is orbiting the Sun.
Previously, it was believed that a planet, similar to Mars, collided with the earth and the broken fragments from the earth and the colliding planet gathered to form the moon.
This was called the “Giant Impact” Hypothesis.
But, by analysing of the rock samples brought from the moon, it was discovered that the ratio of isotopes found in both the moon and the earth was similar.
Thus, it was unbelievable that the planet that collided with the earth could have had isotopes like that of the earth.
This is because, the ratio of isotopes of the various planets in the Solar System is different.
Hence, it was impossible to offer a complete explanation for the formation of the Moon based on the “Giant Impact” Hypothesis.
Under these circumstances, Prof. Dr. Sarah Stewart and Dr. Cuk of the University of California have explained the formation of the moon by making some changes in the Giant Impact Hypothesis through computerized model studies.
According to this explanation, Dr. Sarah says that the impact of the planet which collided with the earth was much more than what was construed at that time and as a result the colliding planet as well the earth disintegrated and after their parts melted and mixed well, the moon and the earth were formed. This is the reason for the similarity found in the isotopes of both the earth and the moon.
Moreover, Dr. Sarah also says that due to the influence of the planet that collided with the moon, the spin of the earth increased and it also caused a tilt in the axis of the earth to the extent of eighty degrees.
Dr. Sarah says that the early earth was spinning in its axis in five hours and in due course, after losing it spinning speed to the gravitational force of the moon, it came to the present spinning system of twenty-four hours.
Dr. Sarah states that the early moon was very close to the earth and the earth shook several times during its spin which caused the moon to drift away from the earth. This caused the moon to move away from the influence of the gravitational force of the earth towards a place where the gravitational force of the Sun was dominant, which happens to be the current location of the moon.
According to Dr. Sarah, this is the reason for the moon revolving around the earth at a five-degree-angle from the plane in which the earth is orbiting the Sun.
Dr. Sarah reiterates that the axial tilt of the earth also reached its current 231/2 degrees from its original eighty degrees.
In addition, Dr. Sarah also states that the new hypothesis not only explains the salient features of the Solar System, but also throws light on the inclined orbital plane of the moon.
Dr. Sarah also adds that the current scenario cannot be taken as proving this theory, but on the contrary, makes her think that they are proceeding in the right direction.
She also says that she is all set to experiment this theory.
Particularly, Dr. Sarah says that due to the giant impact incident, heat effects would have taken place in the earth and the moon and she proposes to examine the lunar and the earth rock samples to study the evidences related to it.
Why the moon orbit the earth, in an inclined angle to the equator.
It has been found through various studies that there exists more water on the moon than expected.
This discovery has rendered the hypotheses of the scientists regarding the formation of the moon questionable.
It was believed that long time ago a giant molecular cloud in the space suddenly flattened, shrunk and started spinning.
It was believed that when this happened, the huge core area formed into the Sun, and the dust and gases found on the periphery accumulated here and there and led to the formation of the other planets.
According to this hypothesis, all the planets must be orbiting the Sun on the same plane.
But, it is not so and the moon is revolving around the earth at a five-degree-angle from the plane in which the earth is orbiting the Sun.
Moreover, the planets and the satellites have different isotopes and isotopic combinations.
Whereas, when the rock Samples of the moon were studied, it was
found that the Earth and the Moon had nearly identical isotopic combinations.
A theory was presented to throw light on this finding.
It was believed that long time ago, a Mars-sized body called ''Thea'' collided with the earth at a great speed causing intense heat, which evaporated the outer shell of the earth pushing its parts into the orbital path of the earth.
Later, it was believed, that these blasted materials joined together and formed the Moon.
This hypothesis is called ‘Moon Giant Impact Theory’.
It was stated that due to the intense heat generated during the collision, even rocks melted and clumped together.
Under such conditions of intense heat, volatile gases like hydrogen, chlorine, potassium and sodium would have evaporated and dispersed in the space and so it was expected that there was absolutely no possibility of such volatile gases existing in the moon.
However, now the existence of a lot of water in the moon has been discovered.
Water is formed by the bonding of hydrogen and oxygen.
The study has pointed out the presence of hydroxyl on the surface of the moon in large quantities, which is formed by the bonding of hydrogen and oxygen.
Hence, a question arose as to how the highly volatile hydrogen was present in the moon.
This question was answered as follows:
It was construed that the moon might have received its hydrogen from the Sun and the hydrogen molecule which came that way bonded to the oxygen molecules on the surface of the moon and led to the formation of hydroxyl.
Similarly, it was also believed that part of the water found on the surface of the moon might have come there through the asteroids which fell on the moon from the outer space.
But, Dr. Wim Van Westrenen of Vrije University, Netherlands conducted a study on how the rocks found on the moon were formed and stated that the rocks on the moon were formed along with water.
Based on this, he had also stated that water was present in the moon since its formation.
Dr. Wim Van Westrenen had also stated that water was present on the lunar surface even before the water-bearing asteroids bombarded the moon.
At this point, the presence of water molecules was detected at the core of the rock fragments which were pushed to the lunar surface due to volcanic action on the moon.
Since these volcanic rock fragments were formed at the deep part of the moon, the water found in these was nothing but the water present in the depths of the moon.
Moreover, during such volcanic actions, ninety five percent of the water will evaporate.
Hence, the presence of water at the core of the volcanic rock fragments represents only a small amount of water present in the deeper parts of the moon.
Based on this, the scientists opine that the quantity of water that might have been present in the moon once upon a time could have been equal to the amount of water now present under the earth.
Similarly, a satellite study conducted recently has revealed that water is also present in a frozen state in the polar regions of the moon.
Based on the presence of water in the moon in a quantity well above our expectations, a question arose as to how the highly volatile hydrogen is found on the moon.
This has given rise to great doubts regarding the Giant Impact Hypothesis offered for the formation of the moon.
So, the question, why the moon does not orbit the Sun in the same plane in which the earth orbits the Sun, but orbits the earth in a five-degree inclined angle, also awaits an answer.
My explanation-
All the planets and the satellites of the Solar System were formed at the center of the stars and were captured by the Sun.
The smaller planets that moved towards the Sun have been pulled by the other planets.
Particularly, due to the equatorial bulge of the planets, their satellites are orbiting the equatorial part of the planets due to gravity.
At this point, while these planets revolve around the equatorial part of the Sun, the Sun moves forward in the space.
Eventually, the planets which revolve around the Sun also move towards the Sun.
This pushes the planets, which must revolve parallel to the equator of the Sun, to orbit the Sun in an inclined angle to its equator.
Similarly, the satellites which should orbit the equatorial part of the planets are forced to move towards the planets that move in the direction of the Sun. So, they are unable to orbit the planets parallel to their equator and are forced to orbit in an inclined angle to their equator.
The theory of scientists on the formation of the ocean is wrong.
The scientists are surprised at the presence of water on the surface of the moon, particularly in its polar regions, in the form of ice.
They are also questioning as to how that water came to the moon.
As an answer to this question, the scientists believe that water might have entered the moon through the comets.
Similarly, scientists raise questions about the amount of water present in the oceans of the earth.
The reason is, presently the scientists believe that all the planets and the satellites of the Solar System, including the earth and the moon, were formed when a giant molecular cloud cooled, contracted, flattened and spun more rapidly.
Sun was formed in the bulky center of the cloud and the other planets and satellites were formed when the disk got thinner and flatter and particles of dust and gases began to stick together to form clumps.
The scientists also believe that when planets were formed in this way, the temperature near the Sun was very high and this led to the formation of rocky planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
Specifically, the scientists opine that since the temperature was intense in the area extending up to Mars, water was not formed in the rocky planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
Moreover, the temperature beyond Mars was low and the scientists believe that water was formed in the asteroids and comets formed in that region in the form of ice.
At this point, the scientists believe that oceans were formed on the earth when the asteroids and comets that strayed frequently due to the influence of the gravitational force of Jupiter, came near the earth and the moon by the gravitational pull of the Sun and fell on the earth and moon.
The ice found on these comets and asteroids were responsible for the formation of oceans on the earth.
The scientists believe that moon also got its water in a similar way.
However, the current study points out that the water found on the earth and the moon came to the surface from deep parts .
Thus, it is proved that the explanation given by the scientists for the presence of enormous amount of water on the earth and the moon, based on the Disk of Dust Hypothesis, is wrong.
Comments