Panel #1 (Title)
• This is Outer Space Pals #3. In this installment, we show that, for a short time, Earth originally had two moons.

Panel #2
• As we learned in the previous comic, the Moon formed after a body the size of Mars crashed into Earth. Recent theories, however, indicate that not one, but two moons formed. The small one was about 38 percent as large as the big one.

Panel #3
• The small moon formed in a region called a Lagrangian point. Such points form when a system has two large bodies, such as the Sun and Earth. Because the gravitational forces of those objects balance at certain points, a small body (in this case the small moon) could theoretically stay there forever.

Panel #4
• But our case was special because of the large moon. As it pulled away from Earth (really slowly), it changed the gravitational balance of the system and eventually the two moons merged. In fact, both moons were moving away from Earth, but the large one (because of its greater mass) would have moved outward faster.

Panel #5
• Because both original moons were part of the Earth system, they orbited our planet in the same direction and their relative speed (how fast one moved with respect to the other one) was fairly slow. The speed of impact, then, would have been significantly slower than when Theia struck Earth.

Panel #6
• One question lunar scientists have had since they first saw the far side of the Moon (the first photographs were sent back to Earth by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 in 1959) was why the two hemispheres appear different. This new theory that proposes two original moons goes a long way to explaining that difference.

Panel #7 and #8
• Tara seems confused. She believes, like most people, that because the Moon always keeps the same face toward Earth, it must not spin.

Panel #9
• Does the Moon really spin as it orbits Earth? We'll find out in Outer Space Pals #4.