News By/Courtesy: Sindhu S | 08 Feb 2022 7:28am IST

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Moon was formed during a collision between Earth and a small Planet Theia
  • Giant Impact theory explains the formation of the Moon on Planet Earth
  • New research confirms that the Planets ability to form the moon affects its habitability

Moon formed by planets affects its Habitability.

A planet’s habitability means its ability to harbor life on it. According to NASA the standard definition for a habitable planet is one that can sustain a life for a signified period. According to researchers a planet to be habitual requires

  • A planet to have liquid water
  • Water must be on the surface of the planet and that zone is called the habitable zone.

Moon has an important effect on the life of the earth.

  • Moon presence stabilizes our planet’s axis and controls the seasons on Earth.
  • Moon controls Tides
  • Due to the large size of the moon, it controls hours of the day and the size of the day without the moon it would have taken 1000 days to complete a year
  • Moon stabilizes the axis of rotation

Hence the existence of the moon around the earth increases habitability on earth and now the new research confirms that the formation of a moon affects its habitability. There are many theories that explain the formation of the moon explaining its origin and habitability from 1875 to 2017.

Formation of the moon- 4 theories explain the formation of the moon such as

  1. a) fission theory – Charles Darwin explained this theory and according to this theory at one point in time earth was spinning so fast that a part of it spun off to form the moon and held the Pacific Ocean as the source of the moon but later this theory was rejected once the researchers found that the Pacific Ocean is too young to be a source of the moon.
  2. b) capture theory – according to this theory the moon was completely independent of the earth and while traveling past the earth it was captured in the earth’s planet due to its gravitation Pull.
  3. c) condensation theory – this theory suggests that the moon and earth were formed together while orbiting the black hole but this theory neglect to explain the difference in density between earth and the moon or why the moon orbits around the earth.
  4. d) Giant Impact theory – apart from all the above three theories this theory is accepted by most of the researchers. According to Giant Impact theory, the moon is formed during a collision between earth and another small planet called Theia (about the size of mars), and the debris formed from this impact is collected in an orbit around the earth to form the moon. The hypothesis of this theory in detail is published in Nature Geoscience in 2017 and this hypothesis is accepted most in the science field as it explains the reasons for the same material content being on earth and the moon.

The moon is not formed only around the earth planet there are other planets also which has moon but around the earth is special because it’s 27% more in size than the other moons in other planets and the moon on earth is the 5th largest and only natural satellite in the solar system which is one important factor that affects life on earth.

The recent hypothesis or research has confirmed that the ability to create a moon affects its habitability hence new research proved that the earth ability to form the moon is affecting its habitability because the moon plays an important role in the habitability of the earth as the moon controls the size of the day, tides, Seasons which clearly indicates that above hypothesis that ability of the earth to create or any other planet for that matter affects the habitability of that planet.

 

Section Editor: Nandakishore V Menon | 08 Feb 2022 11:58am IST


Tags : #Moon #satellite #Naturalstar #Earth #Habitability #Planets #solarsystem #formationofmoon

Latest News







Copyright Kalyan Krishna MediaZ Private Limited. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials on these pages are copyrighted by Kalyan Krishna MediaZ Private Limited. All rights reserved. No part of these pages, either text or image may be used for any purpose. By continuing past this page, you agree to our Terms of Service, Cookie Policy, Privacy Policy and Content Policies.