AURA

Earth just wouldn’t be the same without the moon.

SINE

Very true, because without the moon, the earth would wobble and climate would change to make up for it. Click on the climate change link in my note to see how that might work.

But we got the moon by accident. Big accident: best guess so far is that Mars-sized asteroid hit earth and earth spit out molten material that became Moon Listen: I am reading this:

Teacher's domain: retrieved and edited 11/12/2008

"Between 1969 and 1972, six manned and three automated missions recovered 382 kilograms (or about 84 pounds) of lunar rocks and sediment. The lunar materials showed that the Moon was similar in composition to Earth, but lacked the high iron content characteristic of Earth's rocks. The age of the samples suggested that the Moon formed about 4.48 billion years ago, just after Earth's formation approximately 4.56 billion years ago.

One of the most surprising and important discoveries in the lunar samples was the high concentration of an igneous rock called anorthosite. This type of rock forms from magma at particular pressures and temperatures. The fact that the lunar surface is literally covered with anorthosite suggests that the Moon was once covered by oceans of molten magma. If so, the Moon must have formed at very high temperatures. Together with other evidence, this has led astrophysicists to the most widely accepted hypothesis today: Early in its history, Earth was struck by a Mars-sized asteroid and ejected molten material that ultimately became the Moon.

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