Rasmussen College Essay Examples

1) Briefly explain how the Earth’s Moon formed, per the Nebula Hypothesis demonstrated in the online animation of our online course and discussed in our text book in the section of how our the solar system formed. (6 points). The moon formed with the origin of the solar system 5 billion years ago, when a large amount of gas and dust, a nebula, collapsed in of itself by the sheer force of gravity, forming what we call our nearest star, the sun (Chernicoff Whitney 2007, p. 15). The moon was formed as part of the process of particles from this event forming into larger objects. The earth formed in this way and since it is a larger object than the moon, pulled the smaller planetesimal, the moon, into its orbit ((Chernicoff & Whitney, 2007)). All of this matter eventually formed the host of planets, moons, asteroids and comets that make up our solar system. All of these objects revolve around the sun.
2) Briefly explain how the Earth’s Moon formed, per the Collision/Impact hypothesis discussed in our textbook. (6 points). According to the collision impact hypothesis, the moon was formed by being broken off from the earth by incoming collisions of planetesimals striking the earth. The moon is actually a large chunk of rock that separated from the earth (Chernicoff & Whitney 2004, p. 15).
3) Give 2 scientific reasons that would support the Nebula Hypothesis as the method of formation for the Earth’s Moon. (4 points). One, if the moon formed at the same time as the earth, the components of the two would be similar. The rock sample forum the Apollo astronauts are similar to the ones of the earth’s mantle (Chernicoff & Whitney, 2007). Scientists believe that a collision between earth and a mars like object titled earth and heating its crust and propelling chunks of molten materials into space (Chernicoff & Whitney, 2007). These chunks may have combine to create the earth’s moon. Second the collision of the earth and the mar-size planetsimal would have led to the replacement of the earth’s atmosphere with molted cluster of iron blobs (Chernicoff & Whitney, 2007). This aspect implies that the crust had vaporizes but the effect of collision did not reach the mantle. The gravitational pull of the earth then conjoin these materials on a revolution orbit about 400000 km around the earth to form the current moon.
4) Give 1 scientific reason that refutes the Nebula Hypothesis as the method of formation for the Earth’s Moon. (2 points total). The one scientific reason that refutes the Nebula hypothesis is that the moon is not layered like the earth and did not go through a process of accretion (Chernicoff & Whitney 2004, p. 15). The process of heating that occurred on the earth’s surface forced to bury layers of material to its core and form the layers we know of today. Also, just because an object the size of the moon whizzed by the earth, does not mean that the earth would have drawn it into its orbit (Taylor 2012).
5) Give 2 scientific reasons that would support the Collision/Impact Hypothesis as the method of formation for the Earth’s Moon. (4 points). One strong reason to support the collision is that he composition of the moon is similar to the composition of the earth’s mantle (even though it is not similar to its crust) which gives evidence to the collision hypothesis. The Apollo astronauts who landed on the moon found moon rocks that match similar composition to the earth’s mantle (Chernicoff & Whitney 2004, p. 17). Second, the fact that the earth’s mantle and the moon are similar in composition implies that when the earth was formed it was initially similar to the moon, but that part of the earth that is similar was buried closer to the core and the surface of the earth that we know today was layered by incoming objects that were composed of silicon and oxygen based materials. Also, the solar system was more crowded in its early days, so objects the size of Mars were likely to be on a collision course on earth, thus slamming into it and forming what today we call the moon.
6) Give 1 scientific reason that refutes the Collision/Impact Hypothesis as the method of formation for the Earth’s Moon. (2 points total). The one scientific reason that refutes the Impact Hypothesis is that the energy created in respect to the impact was assumed to have caused the melting of the crust. There are no evidences showing the planetary differentiations indication the sinking of heavy material into the earth’s mantle (Chernicoff & Whitney, 2007). Also, it does not explain why there was the formation of a single moon (Taylor 2012).

References

Chernicoff, S., & Whitney, D. (2007). Geology: an introduction to physical geology. Fourth
Edition. Prentice Hall.
Taylor, J.G. (2012, February). “Origin of the earth and moon.” Solar System Exploration.
Nasa.org. Retrieved online from
<http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/scitech/display.cfm?ST_ID=446>.