Related papers: Early Dynamics of the Lunar Core

We address the thermal history of the Earth after the Moon-forming impact, taking tidal heating and thermal blanketing by the atmosphere into account. The atmosphere sets an upper bound of ~100 W/m^2 on how quickly the Earth can cool. The…

According to the standard giant impact hypothesis, the Moon formed from a partially vaporized disk generated by a collision between the proto Earth and a Mars sized impactor. The initial structure of the disk significantly affects the Moon…

Early-type stars have convective cores due to a steep temperature gradient produced by the CNO cycle. These cores can host dynamos, and the generated magnetic fields can be relevant to explain the magnetism observed in Ap/Bp stars. Our main…

The hypothesis of lunar origin by a single giant impact can explain some aspects of the Earth-Moon system. However, it is difficult to reconcile giant impact models with the compositional similarity of the Earth and Moon without violating…

Three principal concepts regarding lunar formation have been examined: the accretion hypothesis, the mega-impact theory, and the multi-impact model. The multi-impact model amalgamates the salient facets of the mega-impact theory and the…

Constraints on the interior of the Moon have been derived from its inductive response, principally as measured by the magnetic transfer function (TF) between the distantly orbiting Explorer 35 satellite and the Apollo 12 surface station.…

The Earth's obliquity is stabilized by the Moon, which facilitates a rapid precession of the Earth's spin-axis, de-tuning the system away from resonance with orbital modulation. It is however, likely that the architecture of the Solar…

Using viscoelastic mass spring model simulations to track heat distribution inside a tidally perturbed body, we measure the asymmetry of heating in the crust of a spin synchronous Moon in eccentric orbit about the Earth. With the Moon…

Geological data show that, early in its history, the Earth had a large-scale magnetic field with an amplitude comparable to the one of the present geomagnetic field. However, its origin remains enigmatic and various mechanisms have been…

In the leading theory of lunar formation, known as the giant impact hypothesis, a collision between two planet-size objects resulted in a young Earth surrounded by a circumplanetary debris disk from which the Moon later accreted. The range…

The process of lunar magma ocean solidification provides constraints on the properties of distinct chemical reservoirs in the lunar mantle that formed during the early evolution of the Moon. We use a combination of phase equilibria models…

Impacts that leave the Earth-Moon system with a large excess in angular momentum have recently been advocated as a means of generating a protolunar disc with a composition that is nearly identical to that of the Earth's mantle. We here…

The nearly equal lunar and solar angular sizes as subtended at the Earth is generally regarded as a coincidence. This is, however, an incidental consequence of the tidal forces from these bodies being comparable. Comparable magnitudes…

Prevailing models for the formation of the Moon invoke a giant impact between a planetary embryo and the proto-Earth \citep{Canup_2004, Cuk_Stewart_2012}. Despite similarities in the isotopic and chemical abundances of refractory elements…

Moons tidally interact with their host planets and stars. A close moon is quickly synchronised by the planet, or becomes captured in a higher spin-orbit resonance. However, the planet requires much more time to significantly alter its…

The leading theory for the formation of the Earth's moon invokes a collision between a Mars-sized body and the proto-Earth to produce a disk of orbiting material that later condenses to form the Moon. Here we study the early evolution of…

The applicability of the linear theory of elasticity to the Moon has been studied. As a criterion was taken the smallness of the strain tensor. The elastic moduli are obtained from the data of the project "Apollo". The pressure was…

This paper shows how the exposure of the Moon to the Earth's plasmasheet is subject to decadal variations due to lunar precession. The latter is a key property of the Moon's apparent orbit around the Earth - the nodes of that orbit precess…

The solar wind plasma from the Sun interacts with the Moon, generating a wake structure behind it, since the Moon is to a good approximation an insulator, has no intrinsic magnetic field and a very thin atmosphere. The lunar wake in…

We formulated tidal decay lifetimes for hypothetical moons orbiting extrasolar planets with both lunar and stellar tides. Previous work neglected the effect of lunar tides on planet rotation, and are therefore applicable only to systems in…