Two Harvard scientists proposed a new model to explain the formation of the Moon in a study published this Wednesday in Science Magazine.

Sarah Stewart, professor of earth and planetary sciences, studies how planets formed. A new explanation for the moon’s origin has that the moon formed inside the earth, back when our planet was a ...

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 model also suggests that the newly-formed moon started off very close to Earth, but then drifted away--to nearly 15 times its initial distance.

Advanced impact simulations The study suggests that the existing model for the formation of Earth’s moon doesn’t perfectly apply to Pluto and Charon. Pluto and Charon are smaller and colder.

New research suggests the moon was the result of a series of smaller collisions rather than a single catastrophe, contradicting a theory that has been widely accepted for over 30 years.

Far more of the moon may be made of material from Earth than previously thought, according to a new study that may contradict the reigning moon-formation theory. Scientists have suggested that the ...

A new explanation for the Moon's origin has it forming inside the Earth when our planet was a seething, spinning cloud of vaporized rock, called a synestia. The new model resolves several problems ...

In the traditional model, the Moon is formed mostly with debris from just one of the colliding bodies. However, the fact that it has such a similar chemical composition to the Earth suggests it ...

Model shows that multiple impacts could have produced our Moon Lots of smaller impacts could build a Moon, but the hypothesis has its issues.

The model also suggests that the newly-formed moon started off very close to Earth, but then drifted away -- to nearly 15 times its initial distance. As it did so, the sun began to exert a more ...