Origin of the moon - Capture by gas drag of the earth's primordial atmosphere

Details Origin of the moon - Capture by gas drag of the earth's primordial atmosphere Origin of the moon - Capture by gas drag of the earth's primordial atmosphere

Jun 1983

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1983m%26p....28..311n&link_type=abstract

Moon and the Planets (ISSN 0165-0807), vol. 28, June 1983, p. 311-327.

Mathematics

Probability

16

Aerocapture, Earth Atmosphere, Hill Lunar Theory, Lunar Evolution, Protoplanets, Eccentricity, Orbital Mechanics, Solar Gravitation, T Tauri Stars, Tides

Scientific paper

The novel lunar formation scenario proposed is an extension of planetary formation process studies suggesting that the earth originated in a gaseous solar nebula. Attention is given to a series of dynamical processes in which a low energy planetesimal is trapped within the terrestrial Hill sphere under circumstances in which the primordial atmosphere's gas density gradually decreases. An unbound planetesimal entering the Hill sphere would have had to dissipate its kinetic energy and then come into a bound orbit, before escaping from the Hill sphere, without falling onto the earth's surface. The kinetic energy dissipation condition is considered through the calculation of the solar gravity and atmospheric gas drag effects on the planetesimal's orbital motion. The result obtained shows that a low energy planetesimal of less than lunar mass can be trapped in the Hill sphere with a high probability, if it enters at those stages before atmospheric density has decreased to about 1/50th of the initial value.

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