Origin of the Moon and it's Retreat

[enceladus_]

In my reading about Astronomy, I have encountered two seemingly different scenarios for the origin of the Moon:

(A) Planet Gaia (unsure of spelling) crashed into the Earth. It nearly destroyed the Earth, but from that collision, debris formed into the Moon.

(B) Planet Orpheus crashed into the Earth at a very oblique angle, so oblique, that there were two collisions. Debris blew off and for reasons having to do with the Roche radius, debris formed into the Moon.

How can there be two different planets that theoretically crashed into the Earth? That can't possibly be right.

Why exactly does the Moon move 1/2 an inch further away every year from the Earth? Do other moons do this, in particular, my username? This seems really weird.

 

[davenn]

from wiki...

another version of formation ... well another object name anyway ...

The prevailing hypothesis today is that the Earth–Moon system formed as a result of a giant impact, where a Mars-sized body (named Theia) collided with the newly formed proto-Earth, blasting material into orbit around it, which accreted to form the Moon.[18] Giant impacts are thought to have been common in the early Solar System. Computer simulations modelling a giant impact are consistent with measurements of the angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system and the small size of the lunar core. These simulations also show that most of the Moon came from the impactor, not from the proto-Earth

who cares what the object was called ;) the general consensus is that the moon was formed by an impact when the Earth was still relatively molten

Why exactly does the Moon move 1/2 an inch further away every year from the Earth? Do other moons do this, in particular, my username? This seems really weird.

not really weird :) again from wiki ...

Gravitational coupling between the Moon and the bulge nearest the Moon acts as a torque on the Earth's rotation, draining angular momentum and rotational kinetic energy from the Earth's spin. In turn, angular momentum is added to the Moon's orbit, accelerating it, which lifts the Moon into a higher orbit with a longer period. As a result, the distance between the Earth and Moon is increasing, and the Earth's spin slowing down. Measurements from lunar ranging experiments with laser reflectors left during the Apollo missions have found that the Moon's distance to the Earth increases by 38 mm per year (though this is only 0.10 ppb/year of the radius of the Moon's orbit). Atomic clocks also show that the Earth's day lengthens by about 15 microseconds every year, slowly increasing the rate at which UTC is adjusted by leap seconds. Left to run its course, this tidal drag would continue until the spin of the Earth and the orbital period of the Moon matched. However, the Sun will become a red giant long before that, engulfing the Earth.

cheers
Dave

 

[Simon Bridge]

How can there be two different planets that theoretically crashed into the Earth? That can't possibly be right.

Welcome to Science - there is always more than one theory for any situation. It is just a manifestation of the adage: there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Notice that both theories involve a collision - don't worry about the names.
Some big object collides somehow and different theorists give different details for the collision.
The dominant theory is that detailed in wikipedia - thanks devann.

You've seen slow-mo movies of a liquid drop into a surface?
You've noticed that you always get a sphere popping up at the end?
That's the basic picture of the Earth-Moon system formation... modify for being much bigger and involving molten rocks and two spheres instead of a sphere and a surface... things like the collision wouldn't have been exactly dead-on and so on. Option B would have been from investigating how undead-on the collision could have been and still get an Earth-Moon system something like what we see today.

Why exactly does the Moon move 1/2 an inch further away every year from the Earth? Do other moons do this, in particular, my username? This seems really weird.

Life is weird - you get used to it.
Yes - other moons do this [change their orbit radius over time].

Not all moons were formed by this process though (i.e. Demos and Phobos).

From the crude formation model (above) it should no longer be surprising that the Moon's orbit radius changes. To get a fixed orbit would involve a very exact random collision ... a contradiction in terms. As the Earth and Moon move apart, conservation of angular momentum means the orbit period also changes... think ice-skater throwing hands out to slow a spin (only the role of the arms is played by gravity).

There are a lot of subtleties though and davenn is correct about the gravitational kick accelerating the Moon. There's also a tidal effect on the Moon - small perturbations from other planets etc.. I just wanted to show that these observations are not too surprising when you consider even a very simple model of the Moon's formation. When you realize what everything else is going on it becomes a slam dunk - there is no way any orbit stays the same in the long term.

 

[enceladus_]

What exactly is the bulge nearest the moon? Does the moon have an equatorial bulge like the Earth does?

 

[Simon Bridge]

It's talking about the tidal bulge on the Earth.
i.e. it's tides.

See the same question here:
http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/9290/why-does-the-moon-drift-away-from-earth

 

[enceladus_]

Many thanks guys.