[meteorite-list] fire flies or flying fires
From: Dawn & Gerald Flaherty <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jun 27 20:48:22 2005 Message-ID: <02b201c57b78$9bd5f6f0$6502a8c0_at_GerryLaptop> I suppose I shouldn't keep encouraging all this "OT"[as perceived by some] BUT [and I'm sure I'll get "some" diagreement] you certainly can't buy this kind of entertainment or it isn't easily available on the "BOOB TUBE". Take it from a connoisseur[or is that a kind of sewer] of Direct TV. Jerry Flaherty ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sterling K. Webb" <kelly_at_bhil.com> To: "Chris Peterson" <clp_at_alumni.caltech.edu>; <Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>; "Dawn & Gerald Flaherty" <grf2_at_verizon.net>; "Graham Christensen" <voltage@telus.net> Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 7:48 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] fire flies or flying fires > Hi, > > Again, it's all in the timing. But you made me re-think some things. Like > Newton, you form no hypotheses. I, on the other hand, am a hypothesizing fool. > > If the Moon is a molten liquid drop of uniform density (undifferentiated), > then Earth's gravity distorts it into a spheroid, and cooling and > differentiation take place in an egg-shaped Moon, creating a thick equatorial > crust and thin polar crust with a centered core until the Moon is cooled. So, it > didn't happen that way. > > So, it was only when mass concentrated toward to the Moon's center (after at > least partial differentiation) that the warm gooey center was tugged and shifted > toward the Earth, moving easily in the hot liquid and slush. > > Now the internal heat has two different length of cooling paths to nearside > and farside centers. The nearside cools faster and the mantle crystallizes > sooner: thinner crust. The farside cools more slowly and the crust continues to > thicken until the mantle separates: thicker crust. As the interior stiffens up, > it forces the off-center core back, almost but not all the way back, towards the > center. > > But I'm worried about my little pet theory, It doesn't look so healthy as > it did last night (more research). There are spots in Crisium where the crust > thickness is essentially zero and north of Korolev it's up to 107 km thick. > That's a little extreme. The Moon is, to generalize, lumpy and uneven, and the > crust differential, which I had always though of as relatively uniform, is far > from it. There are spots on the farside where the crust is as thin as the > thickest parts of the nearside crust. My pet theory might have to go the pet > theory hospital... > > This argument depends on a fully locked rotation rate from the very start. > The fact is, we don't know about that. There are no clues. Present librations > and precessions are all accountable for by gravity and orbital parameters; there > are no residual motions. 4500 million years is a long time... > > Even the truly odd thing, the Moon's orbital inclination to the Earth, can > now be accounted for by the collision model as presently refined. It seems the > debris disk's gravity waves can incrementally crank up the inclination to 15 > degrees or more (and the Moon's is only 5). > > Interestingly enough, for this scenario to work, they say, the Moon has to > accrete on the outermost edge of its accretion disk around the Earth, which > would certainly account for nearside preferential impacts. (That one just fell > in my lap!) > > I think accretion in orbit virtually guarantees a lock. The Moon is orbiting > initially very, very close to the Earth, and we outweigh the opponent 80 to one. > The fight is fixed. The smart money is down. > > But the model, in its present highly tweaked state, is still primitive. Its > equation of state, which underlies the whole thing, is crude and simplistic, > says Jay Melosh. Currently, the model only works if the Big Impact happens while > the Earth is still assembling, at about half its present mass, and Moon > formation is part of the accretion process. > > This puts it on the timeline at about 4530-4540 mya. A breathing space for > the happy zircon? If impact happens later, there's too much angular momentum in > the system for it to work unless you compensate with a larger and larger > impactor. > > Oddly enough, after last night, I was thinking about angular momentum. > (Really, I was, that's why it's odd.) There really is no reason why any > terrestrial planet should any angular momentum to speak of. Accrete a planet by > rocky impacts with totally randomized force vectors and you get NO residual > angular momentum. Everything cancels out (always neat). The giant planets, > formed by a different mechanism than rocky accretion, all spun up nicely, the > bigger the faster. > > Mercury and Venus have very little angular momentum. It's pitiful. Mars has > more. My theory on that is that Mars accreted on the inner edge of a reduced > accretion disk because the newly fattened-up Earth Moon system was increasingly > stealing of Mars' planetesimals on the sunward side. Because Mars accreted more > from the outward side, the impact vectors were prograde preferential and added > angular momentum to the Mars system. > > Maybe our Big Impactor was the largest proto-Mars planetesimal and we stole > it. Maybe the Earth was trudging toward being a small warm dry planet and Mars > was on the road to being big and wet and cool, teeming with life and firmly > believing itself to be the Center of the Universe, when suddenly, its glorious > destiny was snatched away by that sneaky little Earth! > > No wonder the Martians hate us! That's probably why they're always doing > that War of the Worlds thing of theirs. They're only reclaiming what was > rightfully theirs... Being minds "vast and cool and unsympathetic," as Wells > says, their superior computer simulations have demonstrated it to be true beyond > all possible doubt. > > With planet-wide super-cooled quantum-state computers, their equation of > state is so refined that they can trace the Big Impactor back toward Mars orbit. > "It's ours! The Earthlings stole it!" they say, wiggling those three fingers in > righteous indignation. > > The Earth's angular momentum is truly colossal. Having that lunar > counterweight, light as it is compared to the Earth's mass, out there on a long, > quarter million mile lever arm does it, just as Jupiter holds most of the > angular momentum in solar system. > > I imagine cranking up the Act Of God Machine and instantaneously snatching > the Moon out of orbit and putting Mars in an identically configured orbit, only > further in, since Mars weighs about eight times what the Moon does. > > I'm still scribbling on the back of a really big envelope when the Act Of > God Machine abruptly fires, having adjusted all the parameters with an accuracy > of +/- 100 microns, and POP! > > There's Mars, covering more than 10 sky degrees, like a Great Pumpkin! Mars > Rise and Mars Set are spectacular beyond belief! The month is less than two > weeks long. The light of a Full Mars is not only bright enough to read by at > night but as bright as a dim overcast day. And the surf and tides are amazing -- > SURF'S UP! all the time. > > The trip to Mars is now a breeze. If you can't afford the ticket, you can > sit in your back yard with an inexpensive amateur telescope and spot the dust > clouds being raised by the construction of Marineris City by our huge machinery. > Over in the night hemisphere, the lights of Newer York sparkle like stars on the > planet's face. The Moon is gone. > > Angular momentum is perfectly conserved. > > I read in the newspaper (by Marslight) that, despite the recent treaty, the > Martians are starting to grumble about the hot wet air and the noise pollution > again. What they griping about? If this deal was so bad, why are there so many > Martian tourists everywhere you go? You should see the lines at McDonald's! And > at SpaFon's too! There are lots of Martian businesses on Earth now that we > explained money to them. They seem to like money just fine, if you ask me. > > Note: the price of "Martian" meteorites has plummeted again, and are clearly > headed to way below a dime a gram. The Martians just fill their pockets with > pretty rocks from their back yards and sell'em to brokers or trade'em for taxi > rides whenever they make the short hop to Earth. The price of Lunaites is WAY > up, though. > > Then the big machine's screen blinks, "What do you want me to do with the > Moon? It's starting to get pretty hot here in stasis!" I tell the Act of God > machine to put it in a very close orbit around Venus, so it can start spinning > up the planet, a dry moon for a dry world. I make a note to myself for the next > time I feel like cranking up the Act Of God machine, "Do something about Venus." > > Yup! Definitely got to do something about Venus... > > > Sterling K. Webb > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > Chris Peterson wrote: > > > Hi Sterling- > > > > Yeah, I guess you're right, we're doomed to disagree <g>. (Did you see the > > cleverly packaged MIT T-shirts distributed to MIT freshman at last years > > orientation? The ones that nobody noticed until too late had "Because not > > everyone can go to Caltech" printed on the back?) > > > > I take exception to your point that the Moon "obviously" has a uniform crust > > early on. This isn't obvious at all, and nobody has a good explanation for why > > the Moon does not now have a uniform crust. This feature does not fall out of > > any models. Gravity does not obviously explain why the crust should > > be thinner towards the Earth. If the crust thickness variation developed early > > (and the maria are certainly old) this would explain the reason that maria are > > only present on one side. Since it is likely that the Moon was not yet tidally > > locked when the basins formed, I don't see the effects of the Earth as having > > contributed in an obvious way to their formation. > > > > Chris > > > > ***************************************** > > Chris L Peterson > > Cloudbait Observatory > > http://www.cloudbait.com > > > > > Received on Mon 27 Jun 2005 08:30:37 PM PDT |
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