Earth Sciences 1086F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Apollo Program, Terrestrial Planet, George Darwin

• School: Western University
• Department: Earth Sciences
• Course: Earth Sciences 1086F/G
• Professor: Elizabeth Webb

Document Summary

First proposed by british astronomer george darwin, son of charles darwin. The condensation hypothesis: both bodies formed at about the same time from exactly the same parental "cloud" of dust and gas. The capture hypothesis: the probability for the exact gravitational and dynamic conditions needed for an object the size of the moon to fall into orbit about earth is astronomically unlikely. Some chemicals (especially oxygen isotopes) were so similar between the eartha and moon that there had to have been some close "genetic" relationship. Further, every single attempt to model a capture via a computer program failed miserably. Giant impact hypothesis: 1976/77, a planet somewhat smaller than earth (called theia) in a progressively unstable orbit around the. Sun gave earth a glancing blow sometime about 4. 5 billion years ago: kinetic energy - the energy that a body has by virtue of its motion.