The Moon is said to have formed roughly four and a half billion years ago, roughly 100 million years after the solar system was formed. The three leading theories as to how the Earth’s moon was formed are the Giant Impact hypothesis, the Co-Formation Theory, and the Capture Theory. Of the three, the Giant Impact hypothesis is the most popularly support theory as it fills in the most gaps of what we know, although all three theories have holes in their arguments due to new findings. The Co-formation theory suggests that the Earth and the moon formed at the same time, rather than the moon forming from remnants of the Earth itself. This theory is unlikely due to the Earth being older than the moon, as well as the difference in iron and mineral …show more content…
At this point in time, our solar system as we know it was still forming on the sun’s protoplanetary disk. The gravitational force sweep in one direction swept up debris, dust, and gas around the nebula, allowing for chunks of materials to cullminate and form larger bodies. This also made it more common for planetary bodies and comets to collide with one another. This particular planet Theia grazed the Earth’s surface, launching a large amount of material into space from the collision. The floating Earth material eventually collected together, forming the Moon. This is most likely formed by a temporary disk, similar to how planets themselves form while nubulae spin around its stars. There are also scientists who believe that unusual isotopes found are the Moon originated from this collision planet. The hypothesis were formed by Dr. William K. Hartmann and Dr. Donald R. Davis in …show more content…
It is believed that these two bodies eventually collided, and coalesced; the ruins of the second moon are what make up one hemisphere of the larger moon; this combined body is what we refer to as the Earth’s moon. This theory also attempts to explain why the two sides of the moon are so geologically different, as the “far side” of the moon contains a significantly lower number of maria that the side of the moon we usually