Speaker: Professor Sébastien Charnoz

Title: Origin of the Moon

Time: 03:30 pm, 15/05/2026

Venue: Room E301, College of Science Building, Gongguan Campus

Abstract: How did our Moon form, and when? What evidence supports its origin? While it is often said that the Moon formed from a giant impact, many mysteries remain unsolved. Even today, no single explanation fully aligns with both astronomical and geophysical data. I will review what we currently know about the Moon’s formation, explore the different possible scenarios and their challenges, and discuss the critical new data needed in the future to better constrain the origin of our Moon. I will focus on the question of its composition and show that many mysteries are still standing with potentially  important implications for the formation of terrestrial planets.

About the speaker: Sébastien Charnoz : Professor of planetary science at Paris ‘ University and IPGP (Institut of the physics of the Earth). He is a theoretician,  specialist of planet formation and satellite formation. He was member of the Cassini-Huygens missions, in the camera team, and is now member of the MMX space missions to Phobos, and HERA space mission to  binary asteroids Didymos.