The origin of the Moon

Abstract

The Moon has been an issue of deep fascination for centuries, particularly for the Royal Society. Modern astronomy can be said to have started with Galileo's observations of the Moon and the surprise discovery that it was not smooth, as was assumed based on the then accepted concept of perfect spheres in the heavens. Instead it was found to have irregular features on its surface, rather like the Earth. This year (2014) scientists are celebrating the 400th birthday of John Wilkins, who became Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, UK (http://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/news/2014/july/celebrating-science). He was an intellectual of some breadth but was particularly impressed with Galileo's images and discoveries, and, together with Robert Hooke, worked on the idea of travelling to the Moon and the design of a space craft to achieve this [1]. So far as we know the space craft was never constructed but Wilkins did bring scientists together to discuss this and other issues at Wadham and this led directly to the founding of the Royal Society, the world's first scientific academy, in 1660.

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