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The Moon's heavily cratered far-side. 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.
Artist's depiction of a collision between two planetary bodies. Such an impact between Earth and a Mars-sized object likely formed the Moon.. The giant-impact hypothesis, sometimes called the Theia Impact, is an astrogeology hypothesis for the formation of the Moon first proposed in 1946 by Canadian geologist Reginald Daly.
A widely accepted explanation for how the moon formed is the Giant Impact Hypothesis. Lunar research began in earnest when Apollo astronauts brought moon rocks back to Earth in 1969.
The Earth and the Moon form the Earth-Moon satellite system with a shared center of mass, or barycenter. This barycenter is 1,700 km (1,100 mi) (about a quarter of Earth's radius) beneath the Earth's surface. The Moon's orbit is slightly elliptical, with an orbital eccentricity of 0.055. [1]
The research suggests that lunar rock samples from the Apollo missions date to an event that melted the moon's surface — not to the moment it formed. The authors therefore think the moon formed ...
An old theory about how Earth’s moon was formed is getting a second look.
The atmosphere is nebular. Possible early oceans or bodies of liquid water. The Moon is formed around this time probably due to a protoplanet's collision into Earth. Archean: 4,000–2,500 Prokaryote life, the first form of life, emerges at the very beginning of this eon, in a process known as abiogenesis.
Theia, an ancient planet, collided with Earth to form the moon, scientists believe. A new study suggests Theia could have also formed mysterious blobs called large low-velocity provinces, or LLVPs.