About this episode

The episode discusses new simulations suggesting the Moon could have formed in about five hours, along with other astronomical phenomena.

For fifty years the story has been that the Moon assembled slowly out of a disc of debris. New simulations from Southwest Research Institute add one thing everybody left out — the strength of rock — and get an intact Moon in about five hours. Plus eight black holes that outgrew their galaxies, two massive stars that fell past each other and got caught, Dragonfly's Titan landing site gets a name, and today's daylight occultation of Jupiter. Links & sources Southwest Research Institute — SwRI-led modeling identifies new scenarios for Moon formation — https://www.swri.org/newsroom/press-releases/swri-led-modeling-identifies-new-scenarios-moon-formation Denton, Canup, Asphaug et al. — The Astrophysical Journal Letters (DOI) — https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae91e9 Space.com — Earth's moon could have formed in just 5 hours after giant impact — https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/earths-moon-could-have-formed-in-just-5-hours-after-giant-impact Buchner et al. — A large population of overmassive black hole quasars at z=0.3–0.8 revealed by eROSITA, A&A 713, A11 — https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/09/aa59356-26/aa59356-26.html Astronomy & Astrophysics — 2026…

Topics covered

• Moon formation
• black holes
• massive stars
• Titan landing
• Jupiter occultation

Keywords

• Moon
• black holes
• massive stars
• Titan
• Jupiter

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Southwest Research Institute, Space.com, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Nature Astronomy

Books & works: The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Places: Earth, Titan

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