Home » World Geography » Physical Geography of the World » Origin and Evolution of Universe Solar System » Origin and Evolution of the Earth » The Moon
- The moon is the only natural satellite of the earth.
- Like the origin of the earth, there have been attempts to explain how the moon was formed.
- In 1838, Sir George Darwin suggested that initially, the earth and the moon formed a single rapidly rotating body.
- The whole mass became a dumb-bell-shaped body and eventually it broke.
- It was also suggested that the material forming the moon was separated from what we have at present the depression occupied by the Pacific Ocean.
- However, the present scientists do not accept either of the explanations.
- It is now generally believed that the formation of moon, as a satellite of the earth, is an outcome of ‘giant impact’ or what is described as “the big splat”.
- A body of the size of one to three times that of mars collided into the earth sometime shortly after the earth was formed.
- It blasted a large part of the earth into space.
- This portion of blasted material then continued to orbit the earth and eventually formed into the present moon about 4.44 billion years ago.
