Moon orbit tilt

2000/08/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

In the last thirty years the orbit of the Moon has acquired the curiosity of astrophysicists, since all satellites found in the Solar System, except for the Moon, revolve in the plane of the equator of your planet. The maximum inclination of orbits to the equatorial plane of the planet is one or two degrees. The orbit of the Moon, however, presents a ten-degree inclination to the equatorial plane of the Earth and the reason why it had so far not been illuminated.

It seems that the Moon was formed about 4.5 billion years ago when a planet the size of Mars collided with Earth. In this clash a large number of fragments of matter spread to space and began to orbit around the Earth forming a ring similar to that of Saturn. After that ring arose the Moon by effect of gravitation.

U.S. researchers William Ward and Robin Canup claim that during the formation of the Moon he was for a while with his gas disc and fraction. The gravitational waves emitted by the newly created moon resonated with the disc. Then the disk began to wave and the orbit of the satellite changed. In the simulations carried out by both scientists it has been observed that the inclination of the orbit of the Moon was up to fifteen degrees until the disappearance of the disk.