Related papers: Composition, Structure and Origin of the Moon
The first mass-estimate of an exoplanet around a Sun-like star, 51 Peg b and the first radius measurement of an exoplanet, HD209458b pointed to the challenges of understanding the atmosphere, interior, and evolution of exoplanets including…
Exomoons orbiting terrestrial or super-terrestrial exoplanets have not yet been discovered; their possible existence and properties are therefore still an unresolved question. Here we explore the collisional formation of exomoons through…
Major element fractionation among chondrites has been discussed for decades as ratios relative to Si or Mg. Recently, by expressing ratios relative to Fe, I discovered a new relationship admitting the possibility that ordinary chondrite…
When the Moon was formed it was much closer to the Earth than it is today. It just needed about 20 days then to go around the Earth. Now it takes the Moon 29.5 days to make one revolution. In order to follow the conservation of angular…
Recently, I reported the discovery of a new fundamental relationship of the major elements (Fe, Mg, Si) of chondrites that admits the possibility that ordinary chondrite meteorites are derived from two components, a relatively oxidized and…
Mercury has an unusually large metal core comprising ~70% of its mass comparing to all other terrestrial planets in the solar system. Giant impacts can remove a significant fraction of the silicate mantle of a chondritic proto-Mercury and…
The leading hypothesis for the origin of the Moon, that of a single giant impact, faces significant challenges. These include either the need for an impactor with a near-identical composition to Earth or an extremely high-mass or…
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 melt productivity of a differentiated planet's mantle is primarily controlled by its iron content, which is itself approximated by the planet's core mass fraction (CMF). Here we show that estimates of an exo-planet's CMF allows robust…
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…
Lunar impact flashes have been monitored over the last 20 years for determining the mass frequency distribution of near-Earth objects in the cm-dm size range. In this work, using telescopic observations in R and I band from the NELIOTA…
The leading theory for the origin of the Moon is the giant impact hypothesis, in which the Moon was formed out of the debris left over from the collision of a Mars-sized body with the Earth. Soon after its formation, the orbit of the Moon…
It is known that most of the craters on the surface of the Moon were created by the collision of minor bodies of the Solar System. Main Belt Asteroids, which can approach the terrestrial planets as a consequence of different types of…
Knowing the isotopic composition of Theia, the proto-planet which collided with the Earth in the Giant Impact that formed the Moon, could provide interesting insights on the state of homogenization of the inner solar system at the late…
We perform the first tests of various proposed explanations for observed features of the Moon's argon exosphere, including models of: spatially varying surface interactions; a source that reflects the lunar near-surface potassium…
Aims. Particles ejected from the lunar surface via hypervelocity impacts form a torus between the Earth and the Moon. According to our previous study (Yang et al., A\&A, 659, A120), among them about $2.3\times10^{-4}\,\mathrm{kg/s}$…
The MESSENGER mission sought to discover what physical processes determined Mercury's high metal to silicate ratio. Instead, the mission has discovered multiple anomalous characteristics about our innermost planet. The lack of FeO and the…
The rate at which giant planets accumulate solids and gas is a critical component of planet formation models, yet it is extremely challenging to predict from first principles. Characterizing the heavy element (everything other than hydrogen…
In the past, clues on the potential radiogenic activity of the lunar interior have been obtained from the isotopic composition of noble gases like Argon. Excess Argon (40) relative to Argon (36), as compared to the solar wind composition,…
The increasing precision of planetary mass and radius observations is bringing major questions about the structure and formation of planets--such as the nature of the radius valley and origin of super-Mercuries--within reach, demanding the…