Scientists have long believed that Earth's moon was born with a bang, in a colossal planetary collision commonly dubbed "The Big Splat." A study published in the latest issue of Nature all but confirms this violent hypothesis — but two additional studies published today in Science make the story of the Moon's origins far …

How did Earth get its own Moon? For decades, the most popular origin story has been the "Big Splat" theory, which says an object the size of Mars impacted the Earth more than three billion years ago, flinging material into space which became the Moon.

When we gaze up at the Moon, we expect a certain degree of consistency. Sure, it moves through its phases, shifting in and out of darkness over the course of the month, but generally speaking, the Moon's surface looks the same to us — night after night, year after year. But the Moon has not always looked the way it…