Emily Chan
Back when Earth and our moon were positioned nearer to each other, there may have been moonlets circling the duo.
Similar moonlets could be orbiting distant exoplanets and their moons right now, according to a new study.
Currently, the moon revolves around the Earth at a distance of roughly 239,000 miles, which is about 30 times the size of Earth’s diameter.
Over time, the Earth and moon are projected to grow farther apart at the rate of approximately 1.5 inches every year, per NASA.
In the past, the moon and our planet were much closer together. About 4.5 billion years ago, the moon formed after a giant collision between a rock the size of Mars and the newborn Earth.
The collision shot debris into space at a distance of roughly 11,890 miles. The moon was formed from this debris.
At present, the moon’s orbit around Earth is titled by five degrees. Previous research has indicated that as a newborn, the moon’s orbit was inclined by at least 10 degrees.
It is unclear why the moon’s orbit was so tilted around the time it was formed. Scientists expected the moon to form in alignment with the Earth’s orbit around the sun.
In the new study, researchers investigated the impact that formed the moon to try to explain why the moon’s orbit has changed over time.
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