Other
Scientific paper
Jan 1987
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987stin...9919289d&link_type=abstract
Origin of the Moon, p. 487
Other
Fission, Mathematical Models, Stability, Celestial Bodies, Fission Products, Compressibility, Ejection, Rotation, Moon
Scientific paper
In this paper, we use the term fission to refer to the breakup of an equilibrium celestial body driven by rapid rotation. Historically, it was conjectured that fission would lead to splitting of a body directly into two or more pieces. Numerical hydrodynamic simulation techniques have now become sufficiently powerful to study the outcome of dynamic fission instabilities. We summarize recent work and present new simulations spanning a range of rotation rates and fluid compressibility. In the best resolved cases dynamic fission instability always leads to ejection of a ring or disk of debris rather thin one or a few discrete bodies. In this case, just as in most other lunar origin theories, a fission-product Moon must accrete out of a geocentric swarm of material. Intrinsic nonaxisymmetry of the remnant Earth after fission would prevent rapid recollapse of the swarm. The revised picture aleviates some of the problems associated with earlier versions of the fission theory. The two most serious remaining objections are that it is difficult to make the proto-Earth rotate fast enough to undergo fission and that the proto-Earth must be largely molten at the time it fissions. To overcome the first objection, it may be necessary to combine fission with the planetesimal impact theory. Some advantages of such a hybrid theory are discussed. The second objection cannot be fully assessed until more is known about the fission history and accretion of the proto-Earth.
Durisen Richard H.
Gingold Robert A.
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