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 ...

The formation of the Moon may have come harder on the heels of Earth's birth than we thought. According to a new analysis by researchers from the US, France, and Germany, Earth's constant companion ...

The moon is much older than we thought, according to a new analysis conducted by researchers from the United States, France, and Germany. It is possible that Earth's companion formed as early as 4.53 ...

Billions of years ago, so the theory goes, something around the size of Mars smacked into Earth, spewing a whole bunch of dirt into space that eventually coalesced to form the Moon. This is called the ...

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 ...

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 ...

Scientists traced the Moon's parent planet Theia to the inner Solar System, solving a 4.5-billion-year mystery.

Scientists have gone back and forth about explanations for the moon's formation for decades, with the general consensus being that it formed during some type of cosmic collision between Earth and a ...

Apollo samples provide evidence: Researchers analyzed Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo missions and, for the first time, ...

Scientists continue to explore the deep story of how Earth and the moon formed. One idea has gained attention because it pushes us to imagine the planet in its earliest and wildest days.

Two primary theories explain planetary moon formation: gravitational capture within a planet's Hill sphere radius and simultaneous formation with the solar system during its accretion disk phase. A ...