Is it posible that our moon was once a moon orbiting Venus or Mars? I call this the "Ping-Pong Moon Theory"

Question

Since our moon is moving away from Earths orbit, in time it may be captured by Mars or Venus's gravitational pull.
I theorise that the same thing happend before. That our moon may have migrated from Venus or Mars, Eons ago.
Just wondering...

Answer 1

What a great name for a theory. "The Ping-Pong Moon Theory."

After a chuckle or two, I kind of brushed it off, but on further reflection, why not?

If the moon eventually breaks away from the earth's gravitational field and moseys off into space, it will inevitably get caught up in some other planets gravitational field - or sucked into a black hole.

Interesting concept.

Answer 2

A theory goes that when the Earth was formed a giant celestial body collided with the earth thus forming the moon. At that time the moons gravitational pull created thousand foot tides, thus stirring up the primordial ocean. Without the moon we'd have three hundred mile per hour winds on earth, and yes life on the earth would have been very different. But the moon is moving away from the earth by about an inch every year.

Answer 3

No, that would be virtually impossible. If the moon escaped our gravitational influence, it would go flying off into space. The chances of it just happening to fly off in a direction that would then cause it to be captured into an orbit around any other planet are infinitesimally small.

An analogy would be like the chances of dropping a corked bottle into the ocean from Florida, having it drift across the Atlantic, and bumping one specific beam on a pier somewhere on the coast of France.

Answer 4

Read James P Hogan's book "Inherit The Stars". While a book of fiction it does provide a good explanation of our moon and its oddities. This fictional account is being more widely accepted every passing day as more is learned from studying the moon and the rest of our solar system.

Answer 5

It could be possible, but I heard that the moon's composition is similar to that of the Earth's mantle, suggesting that the currently accepted theory is correct: That a huge planetoid crashed into the Earth and kicked up large clouds of material that condensed to form the moon.

Answer 6

Good theory! The current explanation is that our Earth was hit by a meteor and knocked a big chunk of the Earth away. That chunk became our moon.

Answer 7

I think its possible becuase honestly...anything is possible under the right circumstances but I think it is highly illogical and really doubt that are moon was a moon for Mars or Venus....we just are not close enough!

Answer 8

By "theorize", you actually mean "fantasize". Unless you have testable predictions and evidence, this isn't a theory.

Answer 9

Anything is possible .We really don't have a clue to what happened and when in space