History and Theory

Although there have been many discussions about how the Moon was formed, the theory that most people accept is that debris from a massive collision with Earth about 4.5 billion years ago caused the formation. This should give scientists something to talk about for another 4.5 billion years. After all, no one was around to tell us about it, so all we can do is make a good guess based on the facts we have.

The Moon, of course, has been known since prehistoric times. It is an amazing thing. People have always tried to explain it. The Greeks and Romans had explanations for it. They thought it was a god. Other people in history have explanations too. See our moon beliefs for more on that. Galileo was the first to invent the telescope and view the moon. He made drawings of the phases of the moon. People became so fascinated that they started planning to visit the Moon. You can imagine that it took a lot of planning and money. Russia was the first to send a spacecraft there, but they didn't land. Then in 1969, the U.S. landed there and Neil Armstrong was the first man to step foot on the Moon's surface. There have been many missions to the Moon and programs to study it. If you want to know all about the moon, NASA is the place to go. Visit our NASA page.