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Show The Earth-Born Moon. Looking back through the mists of time we see the moon ever drawing nearer and nearer to the earth. Our satellite now revolves at a distance of 240,000 miles, but there was a time when that distance was no more than 200.000 miles. There was a time, millions mil-lions of years ago, no doubt, when the moon was but 100.000 miles away; and as we look further and further back we see the moon ever drawing: closer and closer to the earth, until at last we discern dis-cern the critical period In earth-moon history when our globe was spinning round in a period of about five fir six hours. The moon, instead of revolving where we now find it, was then actually close to the earth; earlier still It was. In fact, touching our globe, and the moon and the earth were revolving each around the other, like a football and a tennis-ball actually fastened together. to-gether. It is Impossible to resist taking one step further. We know that the earth was, at that early period, a soft molten mass of matter, spinning: round rapidly. rapid-ly. The speed seems to have been so great that a rupture took place, a portion of the molten matter broke away from the parent globe, and the fragments coalesced Into a small globe. That the moon was thus born of our earth uncounted millions of years ago is the lesson which mathematics declares de-clares it learns from the murmur of the tides. Sir Robert Ball, In Booklovers Magazine. |