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The origin of the Moon is usually explained by a Mars-sized body striking the Earth, creating a debris ring that eventually collected into a single natural satellite, the Moon, but there are a number of variations on this giant-impact hypothesis, as well as alternative explanations, and research continues into how the Moon came to be formed.
How did the Moon form? Earth’s Moon was born out of destruction. Several theories about our Moon’s formation vie for dominance, but almost all share that point in common: near the time of the solar system’s formation, about 4.5 billion years ago, something ― perhaps a single object the size of Mars, perhaps a series […]
Giant impact hypothesis. The prevailing theory supported by the scientific community, the giant impact hypothesis suggests that the moon formed when an object smashed into early Earth. Like...
Understanding how the Earth and moon formed is important for piecing together the history of the solar system and answering questions like how long planets take to form, what planets are made of, and what makes a planet suitable for life.
Museum planetary science researcher Prof Sara Russell explains the origins of Earth's closest companion. Analysis of samples brought back from the NASA Apollo missions suggest that the Earth and Moon are a result of a giant impact between an early proto-planet and an astronomical body called Theia.
It snowballed into a whole separate entity, which we now call the Moon. So where did our Moon come from? Well, currently, our understanding is that the Earth had collided with a Mars-sized object named Theia.
For Laplace, the most obvious explanation for the Moon was that it must have formed alongside Earth (a process known as binary accretion) and been a constant companion since the earliest days of our planet’s history. But even Laplace could see that the Moon’s huge size presented a problem.