Abstract
Recent work on planetary formation processes have suggested that ancient planetary bodies could have been warmer and, therefore, more easily deformable soon after formation than at present. By use of the estimates for the elastic parameters believed to be appropriate for a warm ancient Moon and Earth, it is shown that the energy of deformation of the planetary bodies during a close gravitational encounter was sufficient to effect capture.
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Winters, R.R., Malcuit, R.J. The lunar capture hypothesis revisited. The Moon 17, 353–358 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00562644
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00562644