# The Moon

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moon/35684>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 4, 2000, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moon/35684 "2000-10-04T22:15:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bigneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6f9a4e/32.png) [@bigneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bigneck)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moon/35684/1 "2000-10-04T22:15:36Z")

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How was the moon formed, and how did it come to orbit the earth?

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**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moon/35684/2 "2000-10-04T22:30:50Z")

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[Origin of the Moon](http://www.psi.edu/projects/moon/moon.html)

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moon/35684/3 "2000-10-04T22:33:01Z")

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The prevalent theory is that early in the Earth’s history, a large body (about the size of Mars) slammed into the still-molten surface, and splashed a huge chunk of material from the Earth’s crust into orbit. This chunk became the Moon.