Earth May Once Have Had Multiple Moons

fyc writes "A new study from NASA's Ames Research Center has suggested that the collision of Earth and a Mars-sized object that created the Moon may also have resulted in the creation of tiny moonlets on Earth's Lagrangian points. 'Once captured, the Trojan satellites likely remained in their orbits for up to 100 million years, Lissauer and co-author John Chambers of the Carnegie Institution of Washington say. Then, gravitational tugs from the planets would have triggered changes in the Earth's orbit, ultimately causing the moons to become unmoored and drift away or crash into the Moon or Earth.'" The longest-lasting of such Trojans could have persisted for a billion years. They would have been a few tens of kilometers in diameter and would have appeared in the sky like bright stars.

Comments

That's no moon

[sporkme]

IANAP, but this seems to illustrate a physical possibility, not evidence of past existence. The existence of the moon demands answers, which have been delivered ad nauseum, but this seems to be a bit of "well enough" not being left alone as I see it. TFA:

"The giant impact that likely led to the formation of the Moon launched a lot of material into Earth orbit, and some could well have been caught in the Lagrangian points,"

The possibility of existence does not necessitate existence, but it apparently necessitates a Slashdot headline.
The real headline seems to be:
Post-collision debris from Lunar creation might have persisted a little bit longer than originally thought in these crazy gravitational slots, but no evidence is available to back up this theory, and it sure would be neat-o."
Yay.

Moons? Nomeclature?

[sithkhan]

Let me see if I have this straight - Pluto is NOT a planet, because it falls beneath some arbitrary threshold for 'planet', but ANY object orbiting a planet is automagically a moon?

I have no problem with the theory, but if objects 'tens of kilometers' across are moons, then Pluto is surely a planet.

And don't call me Shirley.

Re:Perhaps the asteroid that did for the dinosaurs

[Viper Daimao]

if that were the case, there wouldn't be a k/t boundary layer would there?

Re:Perhaps the asteroid that did for the dinosaurs

[MBGMorden]

Quite true. Any "moonlet" if it had been created by the Earth/Thea collision would have bee composed of roughly the same thing as Earth is. The highly increased iridium is a signature of an asteroid and not a terrestrial rock.