r/interestingasfuck • u/howimetyourcakeshop • 10h ago

Our moon being formed.

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u/Rxckless92 7h ago

I'm rather uneducated about this stuff, but how do the scientist know for sure this is how it happened?

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u/JimTobin89 7h ago

This is actually quite easy to answer, Im surprised no one mentioned this.

When we went to the moon, the samples we brought back revealed that a lot of the material analyzed is made of the same stuff from the earth.

This theory formed as a result of that data.

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u/platypodus 7h ago

What level of "stuff" are we talking about here? Same minerals? Isotopes?

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u/No_Landscape4557 7h ago

Basically yes. For a simpler version for thought experiment, let’s say I somehow magically have 8 cups in front of me and inside of each cup was a sample of each planet(that we somehow magically got). How would you know which cup belongs to which planet?

Well four planets are just made of gas and four are made of rock. If you analyzes the materials down to its atoms you can form a likely idea. If you cup it full of hydrogen then it’s not gunna be from earth.

Each body in the solar system has its own fingerprints. Most asteroids are just pure iron and nickle.

For the moon I believe oddly enough has the same carbon ratio as we see here