The moon seems to be taking up an inordinate number of column inches in my blog lately. Well it's been a slow couple of weeks post Comet Holmes and the Kaguya images. So as I was looking out of my office window I spotted the enormity of the the full moon. Then this article from the BBC website popped up on my RSS feeds so I thought I would share it with you.
According to Paul Rincon, a BBC Website science reporter, the moon has been reported within the Astrophysics Journal as being rather special. Based upon research into the amount of dust created when two massive objects collide within the universe undertaken by Nadya Gorlova of the University of Florida in Gainesville, US, it is estimated that 5% to 10% of moons orbiting planetary systems in our universe are developed in this way.
"If there were lots of moons forming, we would have seen dust around lots of stars - but we didn't." states Gorlova. When old stars die and super Novas are created, the blast obliterates many planets and other matter within its influence. This dust can be seen around many nebulae. New stars are formed and this matter is slowly condensed into planets/moons. According to the article, astronomers think that this process takes between 10 and 50 million years. This is the basis for the research that Gorlova undertook. Her team observed star systems that were estimated to be around 30 million years old and using the Spitzer Telescope, looked for the tell tale dust and debris. "We found about two to four objects, but only one fits all the characteristics of a moon collision. The dust is at the right temperature and at the right distance," Dr Gorlova stated.
So next time you are looking up into the sky and bathing in the gentle glow of light reflected from that moon up there, think about how special it is and how lucky we are not only from the point of view of being the only habitable planet with sentient lifeforms in our solar system but also how rare and beautiful our moon is.
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