Why does the Earth have such a large Moon?Is the moon older than earth?

Answer 1

The Moon was once part of earth. A collision with another planet shattered off a large part of the earth which became trapped in the gravitational orbit of the Earth. As it rotated it gathered more and more debris from the impact to reach the size it currently is.

Answer 2

Some theories hold that the earth and moon formed at the same time, while other theories propose that the moon formed a little bit later due to a collision with another object.

So the moon is either the same age as the earth, or if anything, a bit younger.

Either scenario is consistent with the fact that the oldest rocks found on the earth is about 4.4 billion years old, and the moon rocks show the moon to be about 4.5 billion years old. Even if the earth was a bit older (say 5 billion years old), a major collision that caused the formation of the moon would have liquified the surface of the earth, so we would find no rocks older than that event.

As for why the moon is so large ... there's no reason. That's just the size it formed.

Answer 3

The Earth has such a large Moon because the Moon was made from the Earth. The Earth was once much bigger than this.

No, the Moon is not older than the Earth. Even the Bible says so.

Answer 4

The Moon was created when an object the size of Mars collided with a molten Earth, sending a huge amount of mantle into orbit... this eventually cooled and formed the Moon.

This was pretty much confirmed by the Apollo astronauts, whose measrements on the surface concluded the moon is made of the same minerals of Earth, just much older (Earth rock is renewed by volcanism) and there is very little in the way of an iron core.

Answer 5

While most planets have moons that formed with the planet, out of left over materials, the earth's moon is actually the result of a collision between the Earth and a rogue planetoid. Thus the moons large size (was a separately formed celestial body)and same approximate age of the earth.

Answer 6

Most theories about moon revolution says that moon was a part of the earth. A great impact of a large meteor with the hot earth resulted in the splash of the moon.

Answer 7

There are several theories regarding this. One is the earth and moon were created by the big bang theory at the same time. The earth "captured" the moon by it's magnetics and gravity.Apparently science believes that under the moon dust maybe ancient accretion from the earth at the time of the great explosion.

Answer 8

The moon and the earth seem to be the same age, and we have the moon so young couples can have a good excuse to go outside and smooch! LOL :)

Answer 9

the moom is smaller than the earth but it used to be bigger and larger than the earth and sky what happened was there was a big monster that looked like snake called " bulalakaw " who ate the part of the moon

Answer 10

There is way to much information to put here, so I'm just going to give you a great link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon