If you have a thought on what made the Moon, this research may well change it. (Science Daily: Moon is proto-earth's mantle, relocated, chemistry suggests)
The thinking generally, going back forever or so, is the Earth was whacked by some huge object and the resulting smackeroo made the Moon. I have no significant expertise in making planets so that seemed ok for an explanation.
The trouble is the model doesn't work. The Big Whack idea hypothesizes most of the material in the Moon came from the large object which did the whacking. However, the current research buries that idea because their chemical study of elements in the Moon shows a signature identical to that of Earth. That research shows them most of the material in the Moon came from Earth rather than the large object.
The study was based on the presence of various isotopes in the Moon rocks brought back to Earth. That's what showed the count didn't match what they expected for the Big Whack idea so they started simulating other possibilities.
Maybe that garners a 'so what' but the chemical make-up of the Moon is of high interest to people who wonder about the origin of life on Earth. If the content of the Moon is from somewhere else than that means there was the possibility the Earth was 'seeded' with various types of organic molecules. If that did not happen then all of those molecules arose on Earth or there's something else altogether.
The idea of 'seeding' is the sci fi aspect because we can speculate all we like about how much or how little actually got seeded. That leads to what, if anything, did the seeding and then the next ... why. Telling that story can easily run all the way around the Moon.
The less mystical idea may be better for sci fi because a seeding without any overt intent is also a possibility. It's just a coincidence that more than one planetary body in the Solar System has organic molecules. That the coincidence exists in a Universe of millions of billions of trillions of stars is all the justification we need to say life is probably all over the Universe.
Neither of those cool sci fi results is what the research revealed and that's kind of a drag since it takes us back to the more pragmatic approach in which biogenesis on Earth is the process by which the chemical composition of the Earth became progressively more complex until life arose from non-life. (Ref: "Origin of Life on Earth," Miller and Orgul, old reference)
Brief religious disclaimer: this stretches the idea of Creation all the way around the planet but it works if you allow God a few billion years to create life from a rock. Since we have no examples of anything else doing that, a few billion years seems fair enough and we won't be calling him a slacker.
The win for those of religious persuasion is the non Big Whack idea gives greater likelihood that life is unique on Earth. That's improbable because of the millions of billions but the idea of uniqueness goes completely away with the chemical seeding, whether overt or coincidence.
Note: Yevette's Bugs Bunny Theory says when you next look at a Full Moon, turn it forty-five degrees, and you may see Bugs Bunny with his long ears trailing behind him on the curve of the Moon's circumference.
The thinking generally, going back forever or so, is the Earth was whacked by some huge object and the resulting smackeroo made the Moon. I have no significant expertise in making planets so that seemed ok for an explanation.
The trouble is the model doesn't work. The Big Whack idea hypothesizes most of the material in the Moon came from the large object which did the whacking. However, the current research buries that idea because their chemical study of elements in the Moon shows a signature identical to that of Earth. That research shows them most of the material in the Moon came from Earth rather than the large object.
The study was based on the presence of various isotopes in the Moon rocks brought back to Earth. That's what showed the count didn't match what they expected for the Big Whack idea so they started simulating other possibilities.
Maybe that garners a 'so what' but the chemical make-up of the Moon is of high interest to people who wonder about the origin of life on Earth. If the content of the Moon is from somewhere else than that means there was the possibility the Earth was 'seeded' with various types of organic molecules. If that did not happen then all of those molecules arose on Earth or there's something else altogether.
The idea of 'seeding' is the sci fi aspect because we can speculate all we like about how much or how little actually got seeded. That leads to what, if anything, did the seeding and then the next ... why. Telling that story can easily run all the way around the Moon.
The less mystical idea may be better for sci fi because a seeding without any overt intent is also a possibility. It's just a coincidence that more than one planetary body in the Solar System has organic molecules. That the coincidence exists in a Universe of millions of billions of trillions of stars is all the justification we need to say life is probably all over the Universe.
Neither of those cool sci fi results is what the research revealed and that's kind of a drag since it takes us back to the more pragmatic approach in which biogenesis on Earth is the process by which the chemical composition of the Earth became progressively more complex until life arose from non-life. (Ref: "Origin of Life on Earth," Miller and Orgul, old reference)
Brief religious disclaimer: this stretches the idea of Creation all the way around the planet but it works if you allow God a few billion years to create life from a rock. Since we have no examples of anything else doing that, a few billion years seems fair enough and we won't be calling him a slacker.
The win for those of religious persuasion is the non Big Whack idea gives greater likelihood that life is unique on Earth. That's improbable because of the millions of billions but the idea of uniqueness goes completely away with the chemical seeding, whether overt or coincidence.
Note: Yevette's Bugs Bunny Theory says when you next look at a Full Moon, turn it forty-five degrees, and you may see Bugs Bunny with his long ears trailing behind him on the curve of the Moon's circumference.
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