There are several different theories about the origin of the Moon. One theory, called the
fission theory, states that early in the life of Earth, a piece broke off, and that piece became the
Moon. A second, closely related theory is that the Moon is composed of several pieces of Earth
that broke away from our planet. Yet another theory is that the Moon formed elsewhere in the
solar system and was captured by Earth’s gravity. The final theory states that a huge piece of
planetary rock struck Earth and broke up into pieces. One of the pieces became the Moon.