A crucial difference in the “fingerprints” of Earth and the moon confirms an explosive, interconnected past Within the first 150 million years after our solar system formed, a giant body roughly the ...

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 ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American The Moon has been a point of fascination in ...

Seismic waves created by earthquakes as they travel through the planet's interior change speed and direction as they move through different materials. Things like rock type, density, and temperature ...

The conventional explanation for the moon's formation is that an enormous rock smashed into the nascent Earth and created it as a result. A new theory challenges the particulars of how events may have ...

Eons ago, in the frigid depths of our solar system, a dramatic collision occurred between two icy worlds. Instead of a catastrophic smash-up, the two bodies "kissed," merging temporarily like a ...

There's a new theory for how the Moon came to be that would solve some of the Giant Impact Hypothesis' issues. If Earth had a magma ocean on it already, a lot of problems work out. Share on Facebook ...

Our moon has been our constant companion for billions of years. But we're still not sure how it came to be, though scientists have a few theories. The most outlandish theory, in which an alien planet ...

Using advanced models, SwRI led new research that indicates that the formation of Pluto and Charon may parallel that of the Earth-Moon system. In the resulting “kiss-and-capture” regime, Pluto and ...