Giant Impact Theory Research Paper

The moon is by far the biggest and most easily recognizable object in earth’s atmosphere that can be perceived by the naked eye on a cloudless night. It is hypothesized that it came into existence nearly 4.5 billion years ago, from residual debris after a planetary body collided with earth. Although, considered the runner-up to the sun as the second brightest object in the sky, its illumination is deceitful, insomuch as the moon is not a source of light, but instead reflects the sun’s illumination from the half of the moon that is in direct alignment with the sun at that time. More readily identified as a satellite of the earth rather than as a planet itself or even a star, it has a diameter a quarter of the size of earth’s size and it

The asteroid impact extinction theory began in 1980 with Luis and Walter Alvarez, a father and son team. They theorized that an asteroid struck the Earth at the close of the Cretaceous period, causing devastating effects and mass

Impact craters are geologic structures formed when a large meteorite, asteroid or comet smashes in to a planet or a satellite. Meteorites are small rocks in space that hit the earth's atmosphere at a high velocity. Throughout their history they have heavily bombarded all the inner bodies in our solar system. In this experiment we will use marbles as our meteorites, these will be free falling objects that will be used to copy an asteroid impact. The surfaces of the Moon, Mars and Mercury, where other geologic processes stopped millions of years ago, record this bombardment clearly. On the Earth, however, which has been

Scientists, however, have identified issues with this theory. The main detraction is that an impact of that size and magnitude would have left a circular impression on the planet. Most analysis of

Conspiracy theorists have also argued that there should have been a freshly gouged crater where the lunar module’s descent engine blasted into the lunar soil. However Bizony rebuffs this myth by explaining that the powdery lunar soil was disturbed by the downward pointing jet of the exhaust, but the thrust was not enough to create a crater in the topsoil, much less even be able to penetrate the hard rocky substrate (Bizony, It was all a fake, right?, 2009). The website, moonlandinghoax.org explains that the lunar module had six-foot long landing probes under the foot pads and when they registered contact the engines would stop firing and the module would fall gently the rest of the way (Moon landing hoax). Since the engines stopped firing approximately six feet before landing, there was not enough blast pressure to create a crater. The article stated that a firecracker would have more power than the engines did after they ceased to fire (Moon landing hoax).

The United States and Mankind have gone on to do many amazing feats that were once though impossible. However, nothing comes to be quite as amazing as the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first men on the surface of the moon. At the time this act caused widespread celebration, and cheer. Over the years some people started to doubt the legitimacy of what occurred on that day back in 1969. These people came on to form the basis of the moon landing conspiracy theory. A theory that states that the United States never landed on the moon and the United States faked the whole thing in order to say they won the space race against the Soviet Union and increase moral during the time of the Cold war. Some of the core arguments that form the Moon landing Hoax conspiracy are that the mission would have been too dangerous with the technology we had at the time. They disregard any footage from the event, believing that NASA and the US government created a fake set in an undisclosed location and used special effects to make the footage seem more believable. All of the claims made by these hoax believers can be refuted with science and common sense, and that is what this paper sets out to do.

A crater, the Bedout crater, in Australia has been discovered. A bolide impact would have lead to mass death of marine and terrestrial organisms. The force of the impact could have released methane from stored organic matter and large earthquakes. These earthquakes would have triggered the volcanism in the Siberian traps, leading to the release of large amounts of CO2 and sulfur dioxide. These gases combined with methane previously released would have created a noxious atmosphere, combined with climate change that killed a large scale of life.

The first fact to go against the moon landing theory is when Stuart Robbins states, “If you have managed to get this far and still believe this claim, then let’s actually get to what’s really going on. Have you ever scanned or photocopied something? If so, you know that any little piece of dirt, hair, dust, or whatever that gets between your original and your imaging device will show up in the copy. That is what happened in the case of the infamous “C” rock – a hair (such as an eyelash) or a small piece of lint got caught between the image and the imager when they were making copies of it. Plain and simple. In the original photograph (close up shown below), there is no C.”’ This confirms that it was just some hair or fine particle that came between the camera and the rock. The second piece of evidence that rebuttals against the moon landing conspiracy theory is when Scott Davis states, “But in fact, the label simply isn’t there. The image of the rock is taken from a much larger shot of the Moon’s surface, and if you look at the original image (shown below left), the marking isn’t there. Either a small hair or piece of thread must have got caught in the machine while it was being copied (image below right).” This confirms that there was only something in between the camera and the

The Big impact theory was determined by scientists as the best theory. There are like 8-9 pieces of evidence that I found. Also, It is a theory we learn about in school. It makes a lot of sense. I could not find any evidence that states it is not true. As for the other ones, i found many, and i could not even find evidence to back them up. All in all, The big impact theory is the most reliable

Background Research: A meteoroid is a small chunk of rock that has been broken apart from a much larger chunk of rock called an asteroid, these chunks of rock are located in between Mars and Jupiter, called the asteroid belt. When a meteoroid has been knocked out of the asteroid belt and is on it way towards earth the meteoroid is now a meteor, if the the meteor hits the ground it changes to a meteorite. When the meteorite makes contact with the ground it causes a crater to form, craters are holes on the ground made by the impact of a meteoroid coming towards earth.

In 1975, two scientists by the name of Dr. William K. Hartmann and Dr. Donald R. Davis, came up with a groundbreaking new theory on how the moon was created. Their theory stated “At the time Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago, other smaller planetary bodies were also growing. One of these hit earth late in Earth 's growth process, blowing out rocky debris. A fraction of that debris went into orbit around the Earth and aggregated into the moon” (Hartmann & Herres 1). This theory is known as the Giant Impact Theory and is the accepted theory in the scientific community of how the moon was created. Even though this theory is accepted by most, there are still some people who don’t hold this theory to be true. I agree with Davis and Hartmann’s Giant Impact Theory that a great collision occurred and created the moon. The Giant Impact Theory is supported by the lack of iron on the moon, the moon rocks from the Apollo missions, and its acceptance in the scientific community.

It wasn 't until I really sat down and thought about it that I realized the moon landing was questionable. As a kid I always thought it would be amazing to be an astronaut so the thought that maybe there is no real astronauts at all had me concerned. On July 20th 1969, the Apollo 11 with astronaut Neil Armstrong and his crew, guided by thousands of NASA technicians, supposedly landed in the surface of the moon. This landing at its time was considered the most amazing technological advancement in the history of mankind. The moon landing is something that everyone knows about but as it turns out about 20% americans and 50% or Ukrainians don 't believe the moon landing really happened, here 's why.

Fig. 2. The formation of the Moon due to an off-centre collision of a Mars sized body (Freedman and Kaufmann, 2009) p.249

The Apollo 11 mission of 1969 marks the biggest leap in technological advancements for humanity. Neil Armstrong is seen taking the first steps on the moon forever making his mark in humanity. However, theories surrounding the moon landing have come to light. Conspiracy theorists say NASA, the National Aeronautics Space Administration, have faked the Apollo 11 moon landing. Yet, present evidence can support the authenticity of the moon landing. Evidence such as photos, rock samples, technology, and computer monitoring support the moon landing. The moon landing of 1969 did happen.

1. "Apollo Moon Rocks." Curators Chioce. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. 15 Oct. 2007 http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/cchoice/moonrocks/moonrocks3.htm.