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To: Fred Nerks

Thanks. I wondered if that hypothesis of an old impact on Mercury began life as an alternative model of formation for the Earth’s Moon; even if so, it didn’t work out. IMHO, best case scenario it was Pelion on Ossa.

Mercury’s formation impact splattered Earth with material
Source: Royal Astronomical Society
http://www.physorg.com/news63466447.html

“...Given the amount of material that would have been ejected in such a catastrophe, it is likely that there is a reasonable amount (possibly as much as 16 million billion tonnes [1.65x10^19 kg]) of proto-Mercury in the Earth.”

Moon — Mass: 7.3477x10^22 KG (0.0123 Earths)
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon

(the hypothetical chunks of proto-Mercury would be 2.2456007E-4 per cent of the Earth’s moon’s mass)


16 posted on 01/17/2008 9:36:28 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__________________Profile updated Wednesday, January 16, 2008)
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Whoops, not “per cent”, just the figure itself. [blush]


17 posted on 01/17/2008 9:37:06 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__________________Profile updated Wednesday, January 16, 2008)
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