Robin M. Canup is an American astrophysicist. She received her B.S. from Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

 and her PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder

University of Colorado at Boulder

The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...

. Her main area of research concerns the origins of planets and satellites. In 2003 she won the Harold C. Urey Prize.

She recently co-authored a book called The Origin of the Earth and Moon ISBN 0816520739 published by the University of Arizona

University of Arizona

The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

 Press in November of 2000. Her work is based upon the giant impact hypothesis

Giant impact hypothesis

The giant impact hypothesis states that the Moon was created out of the debris left over from a collision between the young Earth and a Mars-sized body. The colliding body is sometimes called Theia for the mythical Greek Titan who was the mother of Selene, the goddess of the moon.The giant impact...

and has involved intensive modeling testing, simulating how planetary collisions actually unfold.

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