New research suggests that Theia, the object whose collision with Earth is theorized to have caused the formation of the moon, came from closer to the sun. Artist’s impression of the collision between ...

For decades, scientists have held to the idea that the Moon was formed by a single, massive impact between Earth and a ...

One of the oldest unsolved riddles in planetary science concerns the origin of the moon. Over a century ago, George Darwin ...

"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 ...

Scientists have long believed that the Moon was formed by a massive object crashing into the Earth. But what was that thing ...

The story of how the Moon came to be has always carried a touch of mystery. Picture the young Solar System as a restless place where new worlds grew from swirling gas, dust, and rock. In that chaotic ...

Roughly four and a half billion years ago the planet Theia slammed into Earth, destroying Theia, melting large fractions of Earth’s mantle and ejecting a huge debris disk that later formed the moon.