Giant Impact Hypothesis

The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits the Earth, but it’s formation was theorized in many ways. The moon was rumored to form with the belief of four different theories. The Fission Theory stated that the Earth’s spin was fast enough to divide and create the moon. The Capture Theory was that the moon traveled endlessly through space until it was captured by the gravity of Earth and stayed in it’s pull. The Co-accretion Theory stated that a black hole formed both the moon and the Earth. Lastly, the Giant impact hypothesis stated that a mars sized object collided with the earth, thus dividing a part of the planet and hardening it into rock. Moon Craters are caused by asteroids colliding with the surface of the moon. The Earth and the moon differ because unlike the Earth, the moon has no protective atmosphere to guard it against collision. When a crater collides with the earth the impact creates a shock wave and spreads out a material called ejecta, thus forming a crater. Velocity and mass can influence the size of a crater if the crater is moving faster the size of the crater is larger. If the velocity is moving slower the size of the crater is smaller. Scientists typically determine the age of craters by measuring how eroded they are, meaning they use the number of craters to find the age. Older craters are

They are mass and width of the different craters. These were tested in the lab by dropping the different “meteorites” into sand (which is similar to the material on the moon) and seeing which ones would make a larger and deeper crater. Something that could change the size and shape of the crater would be wind. Wind could change the course of the meteorite and if there is a large amount of force pushing on the meteorite it could cause the crater to be deeper in width and more energy will be released when the meteorite hits its target on the