Loren Pechtel

The biggest piece of Shoemaker-Levy hit with an energy of 6,000,000,000,000 tons of TNT. Not as big as the dinosaur-killer but it would have been a *MAJOR* disaster for the human race.

Steven Avery

Does anyone have a number for the energy of the proposed moon-creation collision?

Would they also do they go into the physics of a collision with molten rock ?
Apparently the idea is that the collision throws off solid-enough chunks yet the molten surface of the earth heals itself "without a trace" ? And the life-forming processes had not begun until after this spinoff ?

When I get a little chance I will go through whatever science material is
actually linked to in the posts (an "animation" is not really deep). I find the
issue fascinating and the 'skeptical' approach entertaining.

Shalom,
Steven Avery
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Messianic_Apologetic

Rhaedas

In such an impact I doubt there was much "solid", it was all molten, thus there would be no "scar", only what's been presented above as far as what we see from the makeup of the earth and the moon, suggesting the moon is thrown off lighter crustal material. Looking at both Venus and Mars, they have much thicker crusts, which prevent any continental movement, something vital to our biosphere. Another thing I don't think mentioned, the circular orbit, outwards motion, and locked rotation of the moon also suggests it being once connected to the earth, and not captured.

Nialler

That's a superb analogy. I was struggling for an explanation which involved less than 500 words.

DeLurking

I find that magically leaving no scar on the surface of the moon after splitting and rejoining it, or avoiding any effect on the earth are about as difficult as magically splitting the moon in the first place.

if you see any inconsistency on a sacred text, the answer is always "a wizard God did it"

Ezkerraldean

its molten. you cant leave a crater on a molten surface.
nope. it would have happened at a good 4.5Ga, and the most optimistic estimates for the beginning of life are at 4Ga.

Loren Pechtel

You'll need a lot more zeroes. I don't recall how many.

False assumption! There's no reason the bits that get thrown off have to be solid. After an event like that the splash will be liquid.

And the hit occured back before things were stable enough for life to form.

RAFH

When the collision occurred, yes, there probably was a good sized hole in the planet, whether it was liquid or solid. As noted, the resulting heat of the collision would have melted the surface of the earth and down to a considerable depth. We are talking about extremely large masses moving at very high speeds. Certainly the material ejected into orbit was liquid and even gaseous. Again, its hard for us to imagine energies so great that trillions of tons of rock would be vaporized into gases. So there would be no scars on the resulting body that became the moon. You also have to remember it didn't just fly out there and become the moon. It may have taken tens of thousands of years to consolidate.

Back on earth, there was likely a massive crater, perhaps 3000 to 4000 kilometers across and maybe 1000 to 2000 kilometers deep in the planet as well as the sphere itself being significantly misshapen. However, the surface would have melted and in addition to the ejected materials falling back into the hole, substantial portions of the surface would slide in as well. There would also be the rebound effect of the compressed core regaining its shape. Additionally, large masses, particularly molten masses, but even solid masses, redistribute their mass gravitationally to become spherical. All in all, the scar would have been healed without a trace. There is also the tectonic effects of the last 4.5 billion years which would go a very long ways to erase evidence of such a scar.

Look at the Vredefort crater from 2 bya. Think of what it will look like in another 2.5 by. There may not be anything left.

TheBear

Hmmmm....

This thread wandered from the claim of Mohammad splitting the moon 1,400 years ago, to the formation of the moon, some 4 billion years ago.