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48. Origin of the Moon
Evolutionary theories for the origin of the Moon are highly speculative and completely inadequate.a The Moon could not have spun off from Earth, because its orbital plane is too highly inclined. Nor could it have formed from the same material as Earth, because the relative abundances of its elements are too dissimilar from those of Earth.b The Moon’s nearly circular orbit is also strong evidence that it was never torn from nor captured by Earth.c
Some claim that the Moon formed from debris splashed from Earth by a Mars-size impactor. If so, many small moons should have formed.d Even if only one moon formed, the impactor’s glancing blow would either be too slight to form our large Moon, or so violent that Earth would end up spinning too fast.e If the Moon formed from particles orbiting Earth, other particles should be easily visible inside the Moon’s orbit; none are. These explanations have many other problems. Understanding them caused one expert to joke, “The best explanation [for the Moon] was observational error—the Moon does not exist.”f Similar difficulties exist for evolutionary explanations of the other (almost 200) known moons in the solar system.
But the Moon does exist. If it was not pulled or splashed from Earth, was not built up from smaller particles near its present orbit, and was not captured from outside its present orbit, only one hypothesis remains: the Moon was created in its present orbit. [See “Evolving Planets?” on page 26, and “Moon Recession,” “Moon Dust and Debris,” and “Hot Moon” on page 36.]