: Again, you humans overlook the simplest answer.
: The moon was *moved* into its current position, from an exterior source.
How in the *world* is this the simplest answer? There is nothing in its make-up to suggest an extra-solar source, in spite of the evidence gleaned in the start of this thread. If you're looking for simple, start with the fact tha the moon is a planet - not a satellite. There are larger satellites in our solar system, but these orbit the gas giants. Relative to the earth, the moon is huge - roughly a sixth the size in terms of mass. This means that the earth and the moon form a binary planetary system and that the two revolve around a point that is roughly 1/6th the distance between the two, or some 40,000 miles from the earth's center, which is well above earth's 4,000 mile radius.
Now why is the earth-moon system the only binary plantary system in our solar system? Well, a 9 planet system is hardly representative of everything else in our galaxy. In fact, the majority of stars in the universe are thought to be binary star systems, so the solar system is unusual to start with. The fact that we are here to contemplate this is one good reason in the first place - life probably originated in tidal pools that would not have existed were it not for the moon, so had it not been for the moon, we probably wouldn't be here at all.
The origin of the moon - and why is it so different from the earth? There are a couple of plausable theories. The moon did not break away from the earth, but it could have been formed from the debrie of a collision of earth with another massive object early during the formation of hte solar system. More likely, it formed along with the earth as the debrie that formed the solar disc was coalescing into planets. Because the earth was larger, it held onto its atmosphere, which resulted in a very different chemical makeup on earth. One very strong piece of evidence that the moon was formed along with the earth is the fact that it orbits in the same plane as the rest of the planets in the solar system. The orbital plane of objects originating outside of the solar system and captured by its gravitational forces is different, which is why the planet Pluto is thought to be such an object, not to mention the numerous comets that grace the solar system.
