How did the Moon get there?

Rocks returned to Earth by the Apollo astronauts over 50 years ago profoundly changed our view of how the Moon has formed.

This talk will review our current understanding of the Moon’s formation, explaining planet formation more generally and how computer simulations are being used to try to infer what happened 4.5 billion years ago.

When Where Who

• Date:  Sunday 15th September 2024,
• Time: 7pm.
• Speaker: Dr Vincent Eke, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics, Durham University. 
• Venue: At the Washington Wetlands Centre (discovery Room ) and Via Zoom.

Our speaker

Dr Vincent Eke, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics, Durham University

• Vinvent has published various conference papers an articles:

• Conference Papers:

  • Helmi, A., Navarro, J. F., Meza, A., Steinmetz, M., & Eke, V. R. (2004, December). The Nature of the Ring-Like Structure in the Outer Galactic Disk
  • Eke, V. (2003, December). The effect of uncertainty in σ₈ on dark matter halo properties

• Journal Article

  • Ruiz-Bonilla, S., Borrow, J., Eke, V., Kegerreis, J., Massey, R., Sandnes, T., & Teodoro, L. (2022). Dealing with density discontinuities in planetary SPH simulations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 512(3), 4660-4668. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac857
  • Wilson, J. T., Lawrence, D. J., Peplowski, P. N., Eke, V. R., & Kegerreis, J. A. (2021). Measurement of the free neutron lifetime using the neutron spectrometer on NASA’s Lunar Prospector mission. Physical Review C, 104(4), Article 045501. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevc.104.045501
  • Robertson, A., Massey, R., Eke, V., Schaye, J., & Theuns, T. (2021). The surprising accuracy of isothermal Jeans modelling of self-interacting dark matter density profiles. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 501(3), 4610-5634. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa3954
  • Ruiz-Bonilla, S., Eke, V., Kegerreis, J., Massey, R., & Teodoro, L. (2021). The effect of pre-impact spin on the Moon-forming collision. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 500(3), 2861-2870. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa3385
  • Kegerreis, J., Eke, V., Catling, D., Massey, R., Teodoro, L., & Zahnle, K. (2020). Atmospheric Erosion by Giant Impacts onto Terrestrial Planets: A Scaling Law for any Speed, Angle, Mass, and Density. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 901(2), Article L31. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/abb5fb
  • Kegerreis, J., Eke, V., Massey, R., & Teodoro, L. (2020). Atmospheric Erosion by Giant Impacts onto Terrestrial Planets. Astrophysical Journal, 897(2), Article 161. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab9810
  • Robertson, A., Massey, R., & Eke, V. (2020). Understanding the large inferred Einstein radii of observed low-mass galaxy clusters. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 494(4), 4706-4712. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa1076
  • Wilson, J. T., Lawrence, D. J., Peplowski, P. N., Eke, V. R., & Kegerreis, J. A. (2020). Space-based measurement of the neutron lifetime using data from the neutron spectrometer on NASA’s MESSENGER mission. Physical Review Research, 2(2), Article 023316. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevresearch.2.023316
  • Robertson, A., Harvey, D., Massey, R., Eke, V., McCarthy, I. G., Jauzac, M., Li, B., & Schaye, J. (2019). Observable tests of self-interacting dark matter in galaxy clusters: cosmological simulations with SIDM and baryons. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 488(3), 3646-3662. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz1815
  • Kegerreis, J., Eke, V., Gonnet, P., Korycansky, D., Massey, R., Schaller, M., & Teodoro, L. (2019). Planetary Giant Impacts: Convergence of High-Resolution Simulations using Efficient Spherical Initial Conditions and SWIFT. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 487(4), 5029-5040. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz1606
  • Fa, W., & Eke, V. R. (2018). Unravelling the mystery of lunar anomalous craters using radar and infrared observations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 123(8), 2119-2137. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018je005668
  • Wilson, J., Lawrence, D., Peplowski, P., Cahill, J., Eke, V., Massey, R., & Teodoro, L. (2018). Image Reconstruction Techniques in Neutron and Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy: Improving Lunar Prospector Data. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 123(7), 1804-1822. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018je005589
  • Kegerreis, J., Teodoro, L., Eke, V., Massey, R., Catling, D., Fryer, C., Korycansky, D., Warren, M., & Zahnle, K. (2018). Consequences of Giant Impacts on Early Uranus for Rotation, Internal Structure, Debris, and Atmospheric Erosion. Astrophysical Journal, 861(1), Article 52. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aac725
  • Robertson, A., Massey, R., Eke, V., Tulin, S., Yu, H.-B., Bahé, Y., Barnes, D. J., Bower, R. G., Crain, R. A., Dalla Vecchia, C., Kay, S. T., Schaller, M., & Schaye, J. (2018). The diverse density profiles of galaxy clusters with self-interacting dark matter plus baryons. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 476(1), L20-L24. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/sly024
  • Kegerreis, J. A., Eke, V. R., Massey, R. J., Beaumont, S. K., Elphic, R. C., & Teodoro, L. F. (2017). Evidence for a Localized Source of the Argon in the Lunar Exosphere. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 122(10), 2163-2181. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017je005352
  • Campbell, D. J., Frenk, C. S., Jenkins, A., Eke, V. R., Navarro, J. F., Sawala, T., Schaller, M., Fattahi, A., Oman, K. A., & Theuns, T. (2017). Knowing the unknowns: uncertainties in simple estimators of galactic dynamical masses. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 469(2), 2335-2360. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx975
  • Robertson, A., Massey, R., & Eke, V. (2017). Cosmic particle colliders: simulations of self-interacting dark matter with anisotropic scattering. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 467(4), 4719-4730. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx463
  • Eke, V. R., Lawrence, D. J., & Teodoro, L. F. (2017). How thick are Mercury’s polar water ice deposits?. Icarus, 284, 407-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2016.12.001
  • Robertson, A., Massey, R., & Eke, V. (2017). What does the Bullet Cluster tell us about self-interacting dark matter?. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 465(1), 569-587. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw2670
  • Robertson, A., Massey, R., Eke, V., & Bower, R. (2015). Self-interacting dark matter scattering rates through cosmic time. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 453(3), 2267-2276. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1805
  • Schaller, M., Robertson, A., Massey, R., Bower, R. G., & Eke, V. R. (2015). The offsets between galaxies and their dark matter in Λ cold dark matter. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 453(1), L58-L62. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slv104
  • Eke, V., Bower, K., Diserens, S., Ryder, M., Yeomans, P., Teodoro, L., Elphic, R., Feldman, W., Hermalyn, B., Lavelle, C., & Lawrence, D. (2015). The effect of craters on the lunar neutron flux. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 120(8), 1377-1395. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015je004856
  • Wilson, J., Eke, V., Massey, R., Elphic, R., Jolliff, B., Lawrence, D., Llewellin, E., McElwaine, J., & Teodoro, L. (2015). Evidence for explosive silicic volcanism on the Moon from the extended distribution of thorium near the Compton-Belkovich Volcanic Complex. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 120(1), 92-108. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014je004719
  • Han, J., Eke, V., Frenk, C., Mandelbaum, R., Norberg, P., Schneider, M., Peacock, J., Jing, Y., Baldry, I., Bland-Hawthorn, J., Brough, S., Brown, M., Liske, J., Loveday, J., & Robotham, A. (2015). Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the halo mass of galaxy groups from maximum-likelihood weak lensing. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 446(2), 1356-1379. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2178
  • Eke, V., Bartram, S., Lane, D., Smith, D., & Teodoro, L. (2014). Lunar polar craters – icy, rough or just sloping?. Icarus, 241, 66-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2014.06.021
  • Lovell, M. R., Frenk, C. S., Eke, V. R., Jenkins, A., Gao, L., & Theuns, T. (2014). The properties of warm dark matter haloes. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 439(1), 300-317. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt2431
  • For further Journal Articles see Dr Vincent Ekes Profile page…

Talks at the Wetlands and via Zoom or  via Teams

Talks at Wetlands Centre

The SAS is planning to run this  lecture from the our base of operations Washington Wetlands Centre (in the usual Discovery Room) and via Zoom/ Teams which currently is being determined

Suitable hand sanitisers will be located in the room and at the our observatory. 

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