(Image Source: ABC News)
BY MEGAN FAROKHMANESH
You're watching multisource science video news analysis from Newsy.
Two moons will enter: only one will leave. When astral bodies throw down -- the result can be shattering.
ANCHOR: “Two moons in the night sky. Scientists think that’s what it was like; the Earth actually had two moons, until about four billion years ago, when the moons apparently collided and merged.” (Source: CBS News, The Early Show)
The theory sheds a little light on the dark side of the moon -- an abrupt change in topography that’s baffled scientists for years. ABC News has more:
ANCHOR: “Scientists have questioned why the moon has two distinct lunar landscapes. The side that always faces us has flat lowlands, while the far side has high mountains.”
The researchers say two moons colliding solves this problem -- but how do astral bodies just bump into each other? Not with a bang, but a whimper. BBC reports,
“After spending millions of years ‘stuck,’ the smaller moon embarked on a collision course with its big sister, slowly crashing into it at a velocity of less than three kilometres per second -- slower than the speed of sound in rocks.”
Still can’t picture it? Planetary scientists Erik Asphaug says you could imagine it as -- quote -- “a ball of Gruyere colliding into a ball of cheddar.”
And what do you get when you smash together two chees...er, moons? According to Nature News -- the smaller moon flattens with the crash. Asphaug says,
“In the hours after the impact, gravity would have crushed the impactor to a relatively thin layer, pasted on top of the Moon's."
The idea has so far proven to be plausible -- but don’t start reading "Goodnight Moons," to the kids just yet. Geekosystem says, the theory still...
“...hasn’t been substantiated by any actual research. However, the scientists hope that data from two NASA lunar missions will be able to either prove or disprove their ideas.”
Transcript by Newsy.
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