From the Daily Mail:
How the Moon was created and came to orbit the Earth has long puzzled scientists.
The most commonly held theory is that when the solar system was first formed, an object collided with Earth, knocking off a chunk of rock that fell into orbit around it.
But now two scientists have come up with a new explanation. They believe the Moon did not break away from the Earth because of an impact or an explosion in space, but because of a nuclear explosion on Earth itself.
Similarities: Lunar samples from moon landings have shown that the material of the moon is nearly identical to Earth’sTheir idea is based on the fission theory which was first outlined in the 19th century.
The fission theory suggested that the Earth and Moon were both created out of the same blob of spinning molten rock – with a part becoming separated which later became the moon.
However, aside from an impact, scientists couldn’t explain how the blob which became the moon spun off.
Rob de Meijer at University of the Western Cape and Wim van Westrenen at VU University in Amsterdam believe the Moon was blasted out of the Earth by a nuclear explosion on our planet.
[Read more at the Daily Mail]