14 DAY TRIAL // Planetary scientist Wim van Westrenen of VU University in Amsterdam is convinced that previous theories concerning the formation of the moon are wrong.
His belief is that the moon formed about four and a half billion years ago, in the aftermath of an explosion that shook the Earth and sent bits and pieces of it into space.
From Wim van Westrenen's standpoint, our planet can be argued to have “given birth” to its satellite, Daily Mail explains.
The planetary scientist developed this theory on the origin of the moon after learning that, according to investigations carried out about a year ago by a team of University of Chicago researchers, the make up of rocks collected from the surface of this satellite is similar to that of rocks found on our planet.
More precisely, the oxygen, silicon and potassium isotopes found on Earth are identical to those found on the moon.
The VU University researcher argues that the explosion that led to the formation of the moon must have packed the energy equivalent of 40 billion atomic bombs, and that its point of origin must have been deep inside the Earth's core.
All things considered, Wim van Westrenen is convinced that the explosion was a nuclear one.
“A nuclear blast is the only thing we could come up with that could produce the necessary energy quickly enough' to blast the moon into space,” the researcher maintains.
This would mean that our planet's core houses a giant nuclear reactor. Although the idea has been around for several decades, it is yet to be proven.
Presently, most scientists believe that the moon formed when a space object whose size rivaled that of Mars crashed into our planet and shattered.
The debris this object left behind eventually huddled together and formed the moon.
Other believe that the moon is a former part of the Earth, and that it tore off and ended up in space at a time when our planet was spinning incredibly fast around its axis.