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To: martin_fierro

So if the moon was ejected from the earth, why is it so round. Wouldn't it be chunky or odd shaped like an asteroid?


5 posted on 08/23/2006 10:37:09 AM PDT by DonaldC
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To: DonaldC

Lots of gravity and lots of time.


6 posted on 08/23/2006 10:39:23 AM PDT by rightwingcrazy
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To: DonaldC
So if the moon was ejected from the earth, why is it so round. Wouldn't it be chunky or odd shaped like an asteroid?

Most of it was molten or in tiny pieces. Gravity then would draw it all into a spherical shape.

9 posted on 08/23/2006 10:45:48 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan (California bashers will be called out)
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To: DonaldC

The Moon's shape is a function of its mass.


10 posted on 08/23/2006 10:46:04 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
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To: DonaldC

If you look around the universe you will see various examples of rotating bodies. They are all aggregations of matter. They are in pretty well defined structures. Consider the rings of Saturn. As they aggregate and take on more mass they will become spherical and the unequal distribution causes wobbling that eventually stabaiizes as rotation.

The moon was once a ring of particulates flung out by the collision. Time and gravity collected the particles.


25 posted on 08/23/2006 12:44:43 PM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. Keep watch for the Mahdi...... he's coming on 22 August!!)
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To: DonaldC

The moon has five masscons, that is five regions of excess gravity where the density of the material is higher than the rest. That is about as lumpy as it can be since its gravity will otherwise make the body spheroidal. The earth also has masscons and is nearly spheroidal.


29 posted on 08/23/2006 12:52:24 PM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the law of the excluded middle)
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