• DOI:10.1146/ANNUREV.EA.15.050187.001415
• Corpus ID: 53516498

Origin of the Moon-The Collision Hypothesis

@article{Stevenson1987OriginOT,
  title={Origin of the Moon-The Collision Hypothesis},
  author={David J. Stevenson},
  journal={Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences},
  year={1987},
  volume={15},
  pages={271-315}
}

• D. Stevenson
• Published 1987
• Physics
• Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences

In 1871, during his presidential address to the British Association in Edinburgh,
Sir William Thompson (later Lord Kelvin) discussed the impact of
two Earth-like bodies, asserting that "when two great masses come into
collision in space, it is certain that a large part of each is melted" [see
Arrhenius (1908, p. 218) for the complete quotation]. Although he did not
go on to speculate about lunar origin, it must have been remarkable to see
one of the creators of the bastions of nineteenth century conservative
science discuss such an apocalyptic event and the debris issuing from it. It
is equally remarkable that until recently, lunar origin myths have usually
centered around three possibilities (fission, capture, and binary accretion)
that exclude any important role for giant impacts. The Origin of the
Moon Conference held in Kona, Hawaii, on October 13-16, 1984, saw a
megaimpact hypothesis of lunar origin emerge as a strong contender, not
because of any dramatic new development or infusion of data, but because
the hypothesis was given serious and sustained attention for the first time.
The resulting bandwagon has picked up speed (and some have hastened
to jump aboard). Most significantly, efforts have been made to simulate
giant impacts using three-dimensional hydrodynamic codes on supercomputers.
Although all this effort is promising, a sober reflection on the
problem after two years suggests that a lot more work is needed. It is
not yet clear whether the collision hypothesis satisfies the observational
facts.