Other
Scientific paper
Sep 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.6602c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #66.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.616
Other
1
Scientific paper
To study the fate of possible tadpole co-orbitals in the early Earth-Moon system, we constructed a numerical integrator capable of simulating all aspects of the system's tidal evolution. Our integrations start with the Moon on a circular orbit at 5 Earth-radii with 11 degree inclination wrt Earth's equator. We also assume that the Lunar eccentricity tides dominated over dissipation in early Earth. When tides cause the Moon to spiral out to a distance of about 38-39 R_E, all trojans escape due to the evection resonance with the Sun (trojan pericenter precession being equal to one year). If each Lagrangian point contained one trojan, small difference in initial conditions could lead to their relative lifetimes differing by up to 10%. If early Earth had Q=80, the trojan escape happened about 3.9 Gyr ago, coincident with the "Lunar Cataclysm". We propose that the LC was caused by fragments of the two ecaping Lunar trojans, which were tidally disrupted and then impacted the Moon and Earth. The impact spike from each event would have been very brief (up to Myr), but uncertainties in the ages of lunar basins are sufficiently large that two distinct intense episodes may be consistent with the available radiometric chronology data, especially if the Nectaris basin predates the LC. Lunar trojans' fragments should have range of compositions overlaping with those of lunar mantle, enstatite chondrites and iron meteorites, consistent with cosmochemical evidence. The high lunar-impact probabilities of fragmented trojans result in only a small total mass required to produce a few large impacts that are known to have occured during the LC period. We review published literature of other constraints and find that our results are consistent with the production of the well-dated LC basins 3.9 Gyr ago.
Cuk Matija
Gallant Joseph
Gladman Brett J.
No associations
LandOfFree
Lunar Trojans as the Source of the Lunar Cataclysm does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Lunar Trojans as the Source of the Lunar Cataclysm, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Lunar Trojans as the Source of the Lunar Cataclysm will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1078147