Hunt for the Small and Slow

With the recent discovery of gravitational waves, we now have a target for probing the very early universe, close to the big bang.  This is because gravitational waves can travel across the universe unimpeded, meaning those created after the big bang are still bouncing around today.  It’s like the big bang was the ringing of a giant bell, and the ringing can still be heard.  But all of our Easter eggs are not in one basket.  There is another way to probe the very early universe, one we haven’t found yet, because it involves particles that are very tiny and...

The Moon formed so Violently it mixed with the Earth

We are fairly confident about the idea that the Moon formed when a Mars sized object hit the young Earth over 4 Billion years ago.  The resulting debris cloud condensed to form the Moon, giving the Earth a surprisingly large Moon for its size.  Next to Charon and Pluto, the Earth’s Moon is the largest relative to the size of its planet.  It’s also the third largest of all moons in the Solar System, next to Ganymede and Titan, #1 and #2 respectively.  but there is one problem with this theory of the Moons formation: The Earth and Moon are...