The Big Splat or how our moon came to be

Since the earliest times the moon has been considered an object of mystery. The Big Splat (or how our moon came to be) describes how one mystery about the moon was resolved - that of its formation. It is now largely agreed that early in the history of the solar system a Mars size planetoid collided with the proto-Earth to result in the Moon and a somewhat modified Earth. Although this was decided over 20 years ago, I have to say that it hadn't really entered my knowledge base - I found it a bit of a surprise. If you too feel that your knowledge of our closest astronomical neighbour needs updating then I would certainly recommend this highly readable book.

The first third of the book looks at the early history of lunar observations and ideas about the moon, from the ancients up to the work of Laplace. This is followed by three chapters describing the theories of lunar formation which were current at the start of the space age - Daughter Moon, Captive Moon and Sister Moon. Mackenzie then describes how we went to the moon, and how the information obtained modified our opinions of it, leading up to the rather abrupt 'Big Splat' consensus forming at a conference in Kona, Hawaii in 1984.