Scientists have long believed that the Moon was formed by a massive object crashing into the Earth. But what was that thing ...
"During the early solar system's game of cosmic billiards, Earth was struck by a neighbor,” said Dauphas. “It was a lucky shot. Without the moon's steadying influence on our planet's tilt, the climate ...
About 4.5 billion years ago, a colossal impact between the young Earth and a mysterious planetary body called Theia changed everything—reshaping Earth, forming the Moon, and scattering clues across ...
Little is known about the long-destroyed moon-forming planet, Theia. But it may have been born in the inner solar system—just like Earth—a new study suggests ...
Apollo samples provide evidence: Researchers analyzed Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo missions and, for the first time, ...
To our best of our understanding, the Moon formed from Earth following a colossal impact. A Mars-sized world we nicknamed Theia slammed and merged with the primordial Earth, throwing material into ...
Many of the most interesting bodies in our Solar System aren’t planets, but the moons that orbit them. They have active volcanoes, hydrocarbon oceans, geysers, and moon-wide oceans buried under icy ...
Two immense canyons on the moon's far side that rival Earth's Grand Canyon were produced by a cataclysmic collision nearly four billion years ago, according to new research published on Tuesday.
The moon's orbit isn't a perfect circle. Instead, it's more stretched out, kind of like an oval, which means its distance from Earth varies by about 30,000 miles (48,000 km). The surface of the moon ...