Moon Origin – Fission Theory (67)

Introduction

This is the third of the Moon Origin posts. This post explains the Fission Theory, which at the moment in scientific circles, has some validity but not enough to be considered a main contender.

The following excerpt comes from the book “Modern Mysteries of the Moon” by Vincent S. Foster.

The Fission Theory

“This is the idea that an ancient, rapidly spinning Earth expelled a piece of its mass. This theory was proposed by George Darwin (son of the famous biologist Charles Darwin) in the 1800s and retained some popularity until Apollo. The Austrian geologist Otto Ampherer in 1925 also suggested that the emerging Moon was cause for continental drift.

It was proposed that the Pacific Ocean represented the scar of this event. However, today it is known that the oceanic crust that makes up this ocean basin is relatively young, about 200 million years old or less, whereas the Moon is much older. However, the assumption that the Pacific is not the result of lunar creation does not disprove the fission hypothesis. This hypothesis also cannot account for the angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system, which is the gravitational torque between the Moon and the tidal bulge of Earth that causes the Moon to be constantly shifted to a slightly higher orbit and Earth to be decelerated in its rotation (Fig. 3.2 ).”

End (67).