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How do we know where the moon came from? In this episode, Howtown dives into the giant impact hypothesis (the least bad theory of lunar origin) and the growing evidence that the story of Theia may be more complicated than the textbook version. We explore how scientists measure the Moon’s distance, mass, and angular momentum, why Earth’s Moon is so unusually large compared with other moons in the solar system, and how Apollo moon rocks transformed the debate over the origin of the Moon. Along the way, we unpack Robin Canup’s simulations, synestia and multiple-impact, evection resonance, and the “isotope crisis”: why Moon rocks are chemically almost identical to Earth despite models suggesting the Moon should be made mostly from an impactor. From lunar eclipses and amateur astronomy to Apollo samples, South Pole missions, Theia, Artemis, Chang’e, and the search for mantle rocks, this is a deep look at moon formation, planetary science, and how scientists reconstruct what happened more than 4 billion years ago.
Chapters:
00:00 intro
01:04 where is the moon
02:43 the moon is weird
04:20 4 hypotheses
06:08 razors for sale
07:29 the moon rocks
09:45 hartmann’s hawaii hypothesis
12:07 an inconvenient simulation
13:14 isotope crisis!
15:20 join patreon!!
15:30 messier solutions
18:20 back to venus
18:38 back to the moon
19:12 anthropic principle
20:27 love, howtown
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