Re: In the Shadow of the Moon

Why are you folks so afraid of sharing those fully interactive 3D
orbital simulators?

You pretty much get what you pay for, don't you?

Are you folks afraid of getting your Zion socks knocked off?
-
"whoever controls the past, controls the future" / George Orwell
-
Brad Guth



On Jun 19, 10:35 pm, OM <om@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:27:47 GMT, robert casey <wa2...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

IIRC, the Mars sized impactor that hit the Earth to create the Moon is
said to have been at Earth's L4 or L5.

...Actually, the general concensus was that it was more or less moving
in the same orbit as the proto-Earth, at a slightly faster speed. This
tends to explain how the Earth-Moon system managed to form without
getting totally pulverized - the relative speeds weren't enough to
totally smash everything.

...This has led to a theory of mine over the years that might explain
the Lunar Mascons. To put it in layman's terms, the Moon isn't
anywhere near as stratified as the Earth, going from surface to core
despite the spherical shape. What I theorize is that, while gravity
was sufficient to force the debris from the "Great Impact" into a
spherical body, it was not sufficient to cause enough core heating to
create the stratification as seen on Earth. And since the big question
has been where the Great Impactor went after it hit the proto-Earth, I
propose that it a) broke up into large chunks, b) got swept up into
the impact debris, and c) remained as large chunks somewhat intact
deep under the proto-Lunar surface while the entire body spherized and
became covered with millions of years of smaller impacts.

...Now, before any of you laugh, the real surprise about this theory
came a few years ago, when a certain Dr. Jack Schmitt responded to an
e-mail query, stating that the theory actually had some pretty decent
logic behind it, especially since I'm nowhere near a geologist!

...Henry, this begs the question: after the Lunar Orbiter, Clementine,
and other missions, do we have anywhere near a halfway reasonable idea
of where the Mascons are located?

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog -http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[


.

Relevant Pages