| Our Moon formed from the debris of the most dramatic event in Earth's history: a giant collision between the young Earth and a Mars-sized impactor. This collision had enormous effects on the constitution and differentiation of our planet, ultimately controlling the plate tectonic processes that produced present-day landforms, atmosphere, and life. Understanding the current working of the Earth's interior requires detailed knowledge of this collision event. The Moon retains information about its earliest history due to the absence of plate tectonics, but existing models for lunar origin and evolution lack consistency and accuracy. To constrain the impact?s key role in the evolution of the Early Earth I propose to develop a fully consistent, complete physical and chemical model for the origin and evolution of the Moon. Novel constraints on the physical properties and compositions of the materials forming the lunar crust, mantle and core will be obtained using a multidisciplinary approach. Systematic high-pressure, high-temperature experiments on lunar compositions will quantify the distribution of elements between minerals and melts in the Moon?s interior. Densities of these phases will be measured as a function of pressure and temperature for the first time. A Full Moon model will be synthesised by combining these experiments with the latest compositional data from lunar space missions and computer simulations of the dynamics of the early lunar interior. This will be the first instance in which the evolution of a complete planetary body is modelled using direct measurements of physical and chemical properties at all relevant pressures and temperatures. Constraints provided by our approach lead to unprecedented insight into the Moon-forming impact and its effect on the Early Earth. The methodologies developed will form the foundation for models of larger planetary bodies, specifically Mars, the target of future exploration by ESA and NASA. |
