NASA - Return to Flight

[DragonDude]

it would also explain why the moon slowly drifts away from the earth!

It's not going to drift away as in, out of our orbit, though. The moon's distance from us fluctuates over time. It drifts away and reaches a limit, returns and reaches a limit, and repeats.

could be possible since they know the moon is a dead "planet" but...how the hell would it have gotten round then?

The forces of gravity. If you look at the moons of other planets (Mars, or the many moons of Uranus and Saturn) you'll see that they're not all round. Many are roughly-shaped at best. It's believed many of these moons are actually space debris (comets, asteroids, etc) that were caught in the gravitational fields of their supportive planets. Over time, gravity smashes and presses these objects to be more round.

We still study the moon because it's basically a snapshot in time. It hasn't changed for billions of years. The moon is more than just a chunk of the Earth, though. The moon has a geologic history of volcanoes and lava flows (though the last visible volcanism probably took place a billion years ago). I'm no expert on the collision theory, but I believe it makes sense because much of the interior of the moon matches what the interior of Earth would have been at the time of collision? Anyway, that's always been my best guess as to how the moon got there.

All this talking about the moon, too bad the shuttle won't be going there. =(

 

[|Overlord|]

It's not going to drift away as in, out of our orbit, though. The moon's distance from us fluctuates over time. It drifts away and reaches a limit, returns and reaches a limit, and repeats.


The forces of gravity. If you look at the moons of other planets (Mars, or the many moons of Uranus and Saturn) you'll see that they're not all round. Many are roughly-shaped at best. It's believed many of these moons are actually space debris (comets, asteroids, etc) that were caught in the gravitational fields of their supportive planets. Over time, gravity smashes and presses these objects to be more round.

We still study the moon because it's basically a snapshot in time. It hasn't changed for billions of years. The moon is more than just a chunk of the Earth, though. The moon has a geologic history of volcanoes and lava flows (though the last visible volcanism probably took place a billion years ago). I'm no expert on the collision theory, but I believe it makes sense because much of the interior of the moon matches what the interior of Earth would have been at the time of collision? Anyway, that's always been my best guess as to how the moon got there.

All this talking about the moon, too bad the shuttle won't be going there. =(

I heard on some theroy program on abc (bbc here in aus sorta) that a planet the size of jupiter or mars (can't remeber witch one he mensioned , probably mars I would say) hit the earth , and that ethier part of the earth created the moon or the planet that colided with the earth had remains witch is supposedly the moon.

Alot of Thoughts , questions and answers are out there , witch ones am I lead to belive =( ??