THE mystery of why the Moon’s orbit is tilted a few degrees away from the
Earth’s has been solved. Rings of debris thrown up by the impact that created
the Moon could have pulled it out of position.
Most astronomers agree that the Moon was created when an orbiting body about
the size of Mars smashed into Earth some 4.5 billion years ago
(Â鶹´«Ã½ supplement, 7 August 1999, p 3).
The impact splattered enough
dust, rock and vapour into orbit to form a broad ring centred about 12 000
kilometres above the planet.
Within a year, the Moon…
