Well, there’s that big white round thing in the sky that you see every night, right? The moon. Sometimes it’s a ball, sometimes it’s a crescent. The Moon is the one extraterrestrial body that man has ever set foot on. Also, it takes away total darkness in the night (which would be bad) and gives the opportunity for romantic scenes.
But, how did that thing come about. I mean, all things have to start out somehow (as far as we know). Well, that involves a very tiny Earth and a bunch of explosions! Sounds fun? Let’s jump in.
Long ago, around, say, 4 billion years (that’s 40 million centuries), there was a little, unnoticeable clump of magma and dust called Earth. It was just floating about, minding its own business, when a smaller chunk of rock came hurtling by straight into it! This was Theia, a Mars-sized planet whose origins are unknown.
Theia actually took a glancing blow to Earth, which sheared off a bunch of material, blew Theia up, and melded its core to Earth’s. This cloud of dust accreted to form the Moon. Yes, the Moon you see every night. It’s made of two planets. Who’d have thought it?
Anay Ganesh 