Earth Once Had Two Moons, Say Scientists

Lunar scientists claim that Earth once had two moons in which the smaller moon collided with the moon visible today and formed the one orbiting our planet.

Professor Erik Asphaug from the University of California at Santa Cruz will explain this theory about the moon that will be held at the Royal Society in September 2013, reports Telegraph.co.

According to Professor Asphaug, "The second moon would have lasted for only a few million years; then it would have collided with the moon to leave the one large body we see today."

He states that the evidence of the smaller twin moon can be traced on the darker side of the moon that is not easily visible from Earth. The mountainous landscape of the moon is the remains of the Earth's smaller moon that was formed after the collision of the twin moons.

"It would have orbited Earth at the same speed and distance and just got slowly sucked in until they hit and then coalesced," the professor was quoted in Sunday Times.

According to the scientists, one time the inner solar system consisted of 20 planet sized bodies that collided with each other and just eight planets survived. They also assume that the Earth and its moon were formed between 30 million and 130 million years after the solar system was formed approximately some 4.6 billion years ago.