When the Earth was struck by a Mars-sized planet in its early history, it ejected a debris cloud that led to the formation of the Moon. In the beginning, the Moon was extremely close to the Earth, but then conservation of angular momentum led to the Moon drifting away from the Earth - it's still doing it today. Because the Earth was covered in oceans of magma, researchers think the Moon moved quickly away from the Earth, getting to 25 Earth radii within 100,000 years.

The post Early Earth's Oceans of Magma Accelerated the Moon's Departure appeared first on Universe Today.