I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS, BUT IT WAS ALIENS: Freaky Theory Offers Totally New Explanation of the Moon’s Origin.

Their theory involves an entirely new type of astronomical object called a synestia (no, not synesthesia, that’s something entirely different). The word is an amalgam of “syn”, meaning “together,” and “Hestia,” the Greek goddess of architecture. The idea was first proposed in 2017 by Stewart and Simon Lock of Harvard University, a co-author of the new study.

A synestia happens when young, planet-sized objects smash into each other, creating a rapidly spinning mass of molten and vaporized rock. Significant portions of this volatile cloud orbits around itself, and it puffs out into an object that looks like a gigantic donut floating in space. A synestia only lasts about 100 to 200 years, shrinking quickly as it loses heat. The rock vapor first condenses into a liquid, and then into a molten planet.

“A synestia is an astronomical body that exceeds the rotation limit of a planet,” Stewart told Gizmodo. “Synestias are created by the high energy and high angular momentum of a giant impact.”

According to this latest research, the Moon may have formed within the Earth-synestia. Following a collision and the formation of the synestia, a “seed” formed within it from chunks of molten rock. As the Earth-synestia began to shrink, vaporized silicate rock began to rain onto the proto-Moon. Eventually, the Moon emerged as a discrete celestial object, trailing its own atmosphere of rock vapor.

Related? A 4G network is headed to the moon.