this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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Astronomy

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[–] anindefinitearticle@sh.itjust.works 4 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

The Earth's moon is believed to have formed from a similar process, the researchers explained in a written statement, but it was more like a slap in the face rather than a kiss.

See above caveat from the article that makes the title a bit misleading.

A kiss-and-capture scenario works for Pluto-Charon because those two planets are so compositionally different.

The Earth and Moon are so compositionally similar, that in an impact scenario they would have needed to exchange a lot of material. It would need to be a catastrophic impact, not just a kissing/glancing blow. More of an explosive round that penetrates and detonates its energy. Boom and reform, not just a slap to the face.

Alternatively, somehow they formed from the same collection of material in an eddy in the protoplanetary disk. We've been seeing a lot of binary rogue planets with JWST., and still don't understand the binary planet formation that we now observe to be common.