were that the moon was a chunk of matter that had separated from earth when earth was still molten and plastic were it not for the impact of millions of meteorites which left craters on the face of the moon it would have been a faceless lifeless history less piece of matter that solidified and forever follows earth observations made by unmanned satellites however began to bring such long-held beliefs into question it was determined that the chemical and mineral makeup of the moon was sufficiently different from that of Earth to