Abstract
THE necessity that at least half the primordial Moon be enriched in refractory aluminium and calcium silicates1,2, as well as this outer half being depleted in volatiles and the entire Moon being depleted in iron, has led to a renewed emphasis on the capture hypothesis of lunar origin3–7. This emphasis in part springs from the need to have a high temperature (or low pressure) environment in which condensation, and hence presumably accretion, of substances less volatile than iron predominates8,9. The evident reasoning is that the Moon was made in a different place than it is now; the philosophy seems to be that celestial mechanical improbabilities are more tolerable than are thermochemical improbabilities, in view of the fewer bodies involved.
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KAULA, W., HARRIS, A. Dynamically Plausible Hypotheses of Lunar Origin. Nature 245, 367–369 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/245367a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/245367a0
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