This is quite interesting, I was reading about it last night...

I just wanna hear some thoughts and wild guesses and then I will post what I read!

...I remember reading something a while back that reckoned that it broke off from the Earth in a collision with a protoplanet. That would've been quite a sight.....from another planet.

Originally posted by jonnyofthedead
...I remember reading something a while back that reckoned that it broke off from the Earth in a collision with a protoplanet. That would've been quite a sight.....from another planet.

That is halftrue...

The image of breaking off implies a vision...thats not exactly how it happened...

I will wait for a few more answers and post up a detailed post.

So it seems you're very itno the sci/tech stuff also?

I get it inflicted on me. My Dad subscribes to New Scientist, and I've just started an undergrad. degree in Natural Sciences, so some exposure to the stuff is a bit inevitable...

Originally posted by jonnyofthedead
I get it inflicted on me. My Dad subscribes to New Scientist, and I've just started an undergrad. degree in Natural Sciences, so some exposure to the stuff is a bit inevitable...

Oh thats cool. Where do you go? I am starting my BS in Astrophysics come spring prolly...

(Was doing electrical engineering)

I'm a Brit, studying at the good ol' University of Cambridge. Currently at home and trying to make sense of last term's 8 weeks of lecture notes.

As an aside, and please don't take this personally, all astrophysicists are raving nutjobs. :P
(Guess who's reading biosciences and hates maths...)

Second aside: electrical engineering to astrophysics? That's quite a jump...

Ahh, wow, nice to get some more non us people on here. ;-)

Yeah. I wasn't very happy with the direction my EE stuff was going. I am more into electronics, not really EE. My REAL love lies in outerspace and computers. UCLA doesn't offer any real applicable computer majors (CS or EE basically) so I decided to go with what I enjoy. The cosmos!

And yeah, I think we are mostly nutjobs.. :P

Astrophysics and cosmology are fascinating subjects, and if you go on to do research in 'em, you get to play with some of the coolest toys known to man. Were it not for my serious deficiency in maths, I'd have contemplated having a look in that area myself.

Something that's been bugging me for a while: what does UCLA stand for? Isn't it one of the bigger American unis? Odd that they don't do a proper computer course.

Come to think of it, I feel I ought to extend the statement about astrophysicists to scientists in general. I know waaaay too many guys who do biosci/chemistry research and are completely off their rockers to be able to call physicists loonies without including them as well....hell, one of 'em even managed to do the classic "mad scientist" stunt and blew up his lab by mistake!:D

UCLA is a fairly large university in the states, not the largest by far...but one of the larger public universities. Our under grad number about 26,000 students, 10,000K graduates and about 20,000K staff.

It stands for University of California, Los Angeles

Well, if you want a programming degree there program is top notch. If you want to build the components of a computer (we're talking transistor up) the EE program (or the EECS) program is incredible. My computer interests lie in the practical. Networking, data management, databases, hardware application, software, operating systems. There is no blanket major which covers that. The UC system of universities is less 'hands on' and more theoretical.

Hence we have no astronomy major (observation based) we have an astrophysics major (math and physics based.)

Cool beans.

Sounds like the UCLA setup is pretty similar to that at Cambridge in terms of compsci degrees, and in the high levels of theory in the courses. I've always thought that that was a better way to do things though, since practical details change so rapidly but the underlying theory remains pretty constant.

A long time ago I read a book that said there was a planet between Jupiter and the one next to it. The beings that lived on that one got into a war and blew themselves all to the devil and a chunk flew into orbit around the Earth. Good a plot as any eh? I even think some "scientists" have tried to put out that idea somewhere. A guy I knew in LA, told me this scenerio as a thoery of how the moon got there and I was like...."Dude, I read tht in a SciFi book YEARS ago!!! You BELIEVE that?" Folks will believe whatever a scientist tells tem, no matter how far fetched.

And you call us nuts!

i'm taking astronomy right now, and as much as i don't pay attention (because of the teacher, not the subject), i did pick up on one thing:

they're not exactly sure WHY the moon is there or how it got there, but the most likely explanation is something called the giant impact theory. it goes something like this:

once upon a time, in a galaxy known as ours, like an asteroid came flying at this island earth, and the collison was enough to knock earth off its orbit thingy (which is why it has a slanted rotation) but because earth was larger than the would-be-moon, its gravity captured the "moon" and that's why it's still with us today. does that make any sense?

jonny- I normally feel the same way, but a CS degree is mostly programming, and im not a programmer. So, I decided to not study that course of study in a degree program.

Sasha- That isn't exactly what I read and was told by my prof...but im sure there are multiple theories right now...

Becky! Not too far off! The current belief says there were 1-3 LARGE bodies (not neccesarily planets) between Mars and Jupiter. It is believed either a large collision destroyed the planet(s) and jupiters gravity kept it from reforming...

Onto the moon...

It is believed that the moon was a large planetismal (a 'baby' planet) There are 100+ identified planetismals that exist in the solar system today. It is believed that Pluto and its moon are actually captured planetismals and not a planet (though the distinction gets blury...)

The moon struck a young Earth during a period in the solar system in which all of the planets were being bombarded constnatly by meteors, asteroids, and planetismals...

The earth was just begining to differentiate. This means we were just begining to separate into layers. Most of our iron was in the core, there was a mantle and the crust was just starting to form.

The moon impact broke apart the entire crust, causing the Earth to become 100% molten. (IMAGINE THAT!!) The impact sent massive amounts of 'mantle' material slingshotting into space. The core of the planetismal that hit earth joined in Earth, and moved towards the core.

THere was now a mass orbiting the earth, giving the Earth a ring! The mass begin to acreate (form into a single point) and formed the moon!

How's that for a tall tale? Lol

you are a man of great faith. But, can you walk on water?

Originally posted by Momof6
you are a man of great faith. But, can you walk on water?

I tried that once....

Originally posted by Momof6
you are a man of great faith. But, can you walk on water?


I can..... when frozen... :D :D :D

Originally posted by Brian



I can..... when frozen... :D :D :D

That's cheatin' honey!!! No cheatin' allowed. :p