Did Venus Give Earth the Moon? Wild New Theory on Lunar History
1 Rating:    Please don't  forget to:  September 28, 2013 -
LONDON The Earth's moon may be a present from Venus, which once
had a moon and then lost it, a new theory suggests. Under the
theory, Earth's gravity captured Venus' old moon, giving our
planet its big natural satellite.  This idea contrasts to the
thinking of the vast majority of moon researchers, who believe
that the Earth's moon formed some 4.5 billion years ago when a
planet-size body slammed into nascent Earth at high speed. This
giant impact hypothesis, however, has its own issues, as did all
the alternative moon formation theories discussed this week at
the Origin of the Moon conference at the Royal Society here. "I
think part of the key to [understanding] the moon may be that
Venus has no moon, and we certainly have to study it (Venus)
more," said Dave Stevenson, professor of planetary science at
the California Institute of Technology, who proposed the Venus
idea at the conferen