The Greatest Moon Crashes of All Time

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The Big One: Making the Moon

Dwarfing all other lunar impacts is the event that created the moon — an object the size of Mars that crashed into Earth some 4.6 billion years ago. Heated debris from that impact formed a huge cloud, part of which eventually cooled and coalesced to form the lunar neighbor to Earth.

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Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
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Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.