The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be
This lively science history relates one of the great recent breakthroughs in planetary astronomy-a successful theory of the birth of the Moon. Science journalist Dana Mackenzie traces the evolution of this theory, one little known outside the scientific community: a Mars-sized object collided with Earth some four billion years ago, and the remains of this colossal explosion-the Big Splat-came together to form the Moon. Beginning with notions of the Moon in ancient cosmologies, Mackenzie relates the fascinating history of lunar speculation, moving from Galileo and Kepler to George Darwin (son of Charles) and the Apollo astronauts, whose trips to the lunar surface helped solve one of the most enigmatic mysteries of the night sky: who hung the Moon?
Dana Mackenzie (Santa Cruz, CA) is a freelance science journalist. His articles have appeared in such magazines as Science, Discover, American Scientist, The Sciences, and New Scientist.
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Book details
- Author
- Dana Mackenzie
- Imprint
- Trade Paper Press, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 240
- Formats
- Hardcover
- Subjects
- Science › Space Science › Astronomy
- Topics
- moon origins · planetary astronomy · history of astronomy · ancient cosmology · giant impact hypothesis · lunar science · solar system formation · science history
- ISBN-13
- 9780471150572
About the author
DANA MACKENZIE holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton University and spent more than a decade teaching at Duke University and Kenyon College before transitioning to science writing in the late 1990s. His books include The Book of Why and The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be.
Mackenzie won the 2015 Chauvenet Prize from the Mathematical Association of America for his article on Apollonian gaskets. He has contributed to Science, Discover, Scientific American, New Scientist, and Smithsonian.
Dana lives in Santa Cruz, California.