4,600 million years ago, the Moon did not exist. Suddenly and from the bowels of the cosmos, there arose a huge meteorite that hit the earth and released a large amount of matter that, once amalgamated, became our natural satellite.
From ancient times man always admired that fantastic mineral presence that lights up his nights. Many cultures came to venerate her as a goddess and many legends try to explain her origin. Science also tried to establish how the Moon was born and for decades several theories disputed the preferences of scholars.
Split Theory
It was proposed by Geroge Darwin, son of the naturalist Charles Darwin, who argued that originally the Moon had been part of the Earth. Due to the centrifugal movement by its rotation, our planet was divided into two parts.
Theory of Attraction
According to this theory, the Moon was a wandering celestial body that came from another part of the galaxy and was captured by the gravity of the Earth.
Theory of the Double Planet
He argues that the Earth and the Moon were born from the same cosmic cloud and at the same time, 45,000 or 46,000 million years ago. This theory is against the fact that the density and chemical composition of both celestial bodies is different.
Theory of the piece of the planet Phaethon
Alexander Bagrov, a Russian scientist, argued that the Moon is a piece of the hypothetical planet Phaeton, attracted by the gravity of the Earth.
Theory of the Great Impact
It is the most accepted theory today. He points out that 4,600 million years ago, when the Solar System was in formation, a meteorite the size of the planet Mars, hit the earth at 4,000 kilometers per hour. Such a collision released a large amount of matter that, once amalgamated, became our natural satellite.
In 1986, scientists from the National Laboratory of Los Alamos, in the United States, concluded that, in effect, the Moon must have arisen from the collision of a meteorite with the Earth.