Реферат: Theories Of The Origin Of The Moon

impact

eventually coalesced to form the moon. This theory, after years of research

on

moon rocks in the 1970s and 1980s, has become the most widely accepted

one for the moon’s origin. The major problem with the theory is that it

would

seem to require that the earth melted throughout, following the impact,

whereas

the earth’s geochemistry does not indicate such a radical melting.

Planetesimal Impact Theory (Giant Impact Theory)

As the Apollo project progressed, it became noteworthy that few scientists

working on the project were changing their minds about which of these three

theories they believed was most likely correct, and each of the theories

had its

vocal advocates. In the years immediately following the Apollo project,

this

division of opinion continued to exist. One observer of the scene, a

psychologist,

concluded that the scientists studying the Moon were extremely dogmatic and

largely immune to persuasion by scientific evidence. But the facts were

that the

scientific evidence did not single out any one of these theories. Each one

of them

had several grave difficulties as well as one or more points in its favor.

In the mid-1970s, other ideas began to emerge. William K. Hartmann and D.R.

Davis (Planetary Sciences Institute in Tucson AZ) pointed out that the

Earth, in

the course of its accumulation, would undergo some major collisions with

other