How Did We End Up With a Moon, Anyway…? Study the Process of Science Figure from your textbook. PROCESS OF SCIENCE Certainty Is Sometimes Out of Reach There are several hypotheses for how the Moon formed. One of these fits the data better than the others, but none has been absolutely ruled out. Did the Moon split off from Earth? Was the Moon captured? Did the Moon and Earth form together? www Did the Moon form from an Impact of another object with Earth? m In some cases, hypotheses cannot be definitively falsified (at least not yet). The working hypothesis, then, is the one that best fits the data, but other ideas are kept in mind. From: 21st Century Astronomy, Laura Kay, et al, 6th Edition (ISBN 9780393675542) What evidence makes the impactor theory the currently preferred explanation for the origin of the Moon? What evidence remains to be found to rule out the competing theories?
