Emily Kwong

Before we get into it, though, are there other competing hypotheses?

Yeah.

I've heard early solar system formation is like roller derby.

It's just all these players like knocking each other around.

Oh, I'm going to call this the Jimmy Stewart theory.

You know how Jimmy Stewart says to Mary in It's a Wonderful Life, I'm going to lasso the moon?

Yeah, yeah.

Earth kind of was like, come here, I got you.

Very romantic.

Ah, yes.

This does support the idea that something crashed into Earth and the moon is just shrapnel from that collision.

Okay, so among these other theories, there's the moon capture hypothesis, the LASSO one.

You mentioned this idea that the moon just like clumped together from debris in Earth's planetary disk.

Are there any other theories that scientists are kind of, I don't know, not sure of, but are out there?

This is the part of the story that I don't know why it just amazes and terrifies me.

It's like this idea of another body coming closer and closer and then smashing into Earth.

Like, can you imagine what that looked like from the volcanoes here?

They were probably like, ah, what is that?

Sounds about right.

Yeah.