🔬 Lab, quiz and sources for this story: https://echoesof.science/how-the-moon-was-born/
Apollo 11 brought home a few small white chips of rock that didn't belong where they were found. They were the first clue that the young Moon had been covered by an ocean of molten rock, and that about 4.5 billion years ago, a planet the size of Mars may have hit the Earth.
Try it yourself: smash your own planet in the giant-impact simulator and see what kind of moon you get. https://echoesof.science/how-the-moon-was-born
CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open
0:47 I. Three Old Ideas
1:54 II. 382 Kilograms
3:12 III. The Collision
5:06 IV. The Fingerprint
6:29 V. Is Theia Still Here?
7:07 VI. The Moon Today
ARCHIVE PHOTOS & FOOTAGE
• S69-45002 — NASA (NASA), Public domain (NASA) (NASA Image and Video Library)
• S72-53029 — NASA (NASA), Public domain (NASA) (NASA Image and Video Library)
• S72-53357 — NASA (NASA), Public domain (NASA) (NASA Image and Video Library)
• Full Moon (engraving, c. 1635) — Claude Mellan, CC0 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
• Galileos Moon.jpg — Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• Moon by Johannes hevelius 1645.PNG — Johannes Hevelius, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• Sir George Howard Darwin by Mark Gertler 1912.jpg — Mark Gertler, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• S71-19269 — NASA (NASA), Public domain (NASA) (NASA Image and Video Library)
• S71-42955 — NASA (NASA), Public domain (NASA) (NASA Image and Video Library)
• Giant impact.jpg — H.Seldon, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• ARC-20221004-AAV3443-MoonOrigin-Social-NASAWeb-1080p — NASA (NASA), Public domain (NASA) (NASA Image and Video Library)
• as11-40-5951 — NASA (NASA), Public domain (NASA) (NASA Image and Video Library)
• as08-14-2383 — NASA (NASA), Public domain (NASA) (NASA Image and Video Library)
• art002e021278 — NASA (NASA), Public domain (NASA) (NASA Image and Video Library)
• Music: "Long Note Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Unanswered Questions" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Lightless Dawn" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Dark Times" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Clean Soul" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
The collision, magma ocean and deep-Earth views are illustrations based on published models; the isotope puzzle and the Theia-in-the-mantle idea are still debated.
Echoes of Science: true stories you never heard of, and the science behind them. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@echoesof.science
#Moon #Space #Science #Apollo #Theia #EchoesOfScience
