Earth and Its Moon

                        There are over ninety moons in our solar systems but our moon is special because of its size. There are moons that are larger than ours but they are around gas giants or Jovian planets. Most of the moons in the solar system are captured bodies such as meteoroids and asteroids.  This means that the planet had enough gravity to capture the bodies and to keep them in orbit. The moon is so much larger than Phobos and Deimos which are Mars’s moons. This means that Earth’s moon could not have been captured like the rest. There have been many explanations for this but one has won out over the rest. The explanation for the formation of our moon comes from a large impact. When the early Earth was formed it was impacted by a Mars sized body, this impact made the Earth’s surface molten and it let off ejecta that started to orbit the Earth. These ejecta then collided together to form our present day moon. This formation was unique and also gave Earth some of its unique characteristic. The impact has been hypothesized to have increased the speed of rotation of the Earth, as well as the tilt of the Earth these two characteristics give Earth its day and night lengths as well as its seasons. The moon also stabilizes the moon. Without this stabilization Earth would be a tumbling Earth. This means that the Earth would flip and there would be more volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. It is also thought that the impact gave Earth it large iron core as well as its large size.   This iron core gave it its magnetic field which also allows Earth to have life.  I will talk about the magnetic field next time and its significance.