There is a mystery that can be seen in the night sky and which has been baffling scientist’s for many years now, and that question has been where did the Moon come from? Scientist’s have put forward many theories to try to answer this question, however it seems that the theories put forward tend to give rise to even more questions. One answer that has been proposed is the Capture Theory, this would have entailed the Earth’s gravitational field capturing the Moon and bringing it into orbit around the Earth, however if this had taken place the orbit would have been elliptical, similar to that of a comet, and not the stable orbit it now follows.

Another theory put forward to explain the Moon’s presence is known as the Fission Theory, this tries to explain that the Moon was formed from the Earth by centrifugal force and that it broke away, however the Earth would have had to be spinning ten times faster than it does today which is very unlikely, also the Earth’s gravity would have caused the Moon to break up as it broke away from the Earth. Also this theory doesn’t explain the fact that the Moon is lacking in iron and water atoms which should be present if it had originally been part of the Earth.

An alternative explanation is the Nebulae Theory, this assumes that the Earth and Moon coalesced from debris contained in a gas cloud, however it is usual to find these clouds expanding raather than contracting and this doesn’t explain why the Earth and Moon formed seperately and did not coalesce together.

One of the more recent theories is that a celestial body about the size of Mars impacted with the Earth in the past, however scientist’s have been unable to find geological evidence of this having taken place, also it doesn’t explain how the Earth’s rotation speed has not been affected, they go on to try to explain this by stating that another impact took place which slowed the rotation which is highly unlikely as one impact would have been a very rare event, a second would have been even more unlikely.

What scientist’s are in agreement about is that without the Moon’s influence on our planet Earth, life as we know it would have been unable to flourish. Without the Moon’s gravitational pull our planet would not have a tilt of 23.5 degrees, without this tilt we would not have seasons which would affect food production, we would not have a temperature range suitable for life to flourish, without the Moon we would not have daily tides which would affect life in the ocean and oxygen producing life forms which account for 30-50% of oxygen found in our atmosphere.