[7 | The First Moon]4.5 billion years ago, when Earth was just a floating blue ball, it whipped around the Sun with a sister planet, opposing its trail. The two spheres of massive proportion would zip past each other on each revolution, never coming in contact. Each of their orbits was shifted slightly from being uniform with the sun like two overlapping circles. This neighboring planet to Earth would eventually become known as Planet Theia. Theia was a very unique and special planet. Its path about the center of the solar system went against all logic in the local galaxy. It orbited the Sun in a clockwise direction, unlike everything else moving counterclockwise. It was also like Earth because it was mostly hydrogen and oxygen. However, it was free from water in any form, and surface life was not present. The atmosphere was predominantly made up of hydrogen—a miniature sun weighting to ignite. Its core consisted of magnesium, an element abundant in Earth’s crust and seawater. The rare combination of pure element accumulations made the planet act more like a balloon in the wind than a body stuck in the quicksand of gravity. Theia was not externally inhabitable but offered all the elements necessary and nested comfortably within the habitable zone. It was only a matter of time before it would have become teeming with life—that is, until it met its inevitable doom. Theia and Earth, like two siblings, fought for their mother’s attention—their mother, the Sun. They whipped and twirled about it for millennia attempting to knock the other out of orbit with each flyby. The two planets grasped at all passing objects, sucking them in with their gravity to enhance their size. The increase in mass offered a more significant pull of gravity. Combined with the rotational motion and elliptical trajectories, the larger of the two would have the advantage of pushing the other out of orbit.If one took the two planets and sped up their evolution over billions of years to a thirty-minute show, it would look as if they were conscious and well aware of the other’s presence within their orbit—a celestial conflict for the primary use of the Sun.The ballet between the two continued until their sizes could no longer keep them from grazing the other when passing by. They inched closer and closer on their almost uniform trajectories about the Sun for millennia, only in opposite directions. Once the two bodies gained enough mass so that they were of the approximate size, the grouping pushed gravity into a balance. They both then shifted slightly out of their overlapping trajectory into the same course. This happened when each was on the opposite side of the Sun relative to the other. Their new path aligned them on an almost circular route, with a uniform radius about the Sun.There had been another planet—planet Nibiru—caught in the motion of the two orbiting bodies. The clockwise and counterclockwise movement of Earth and Theia kicked Nibiru back and forth on a semi orbit of the Sun. This action kept it within the habitable zone on a permanent sunny holiday. It would have been as if the United States reversed rotation in November, sending it back to June. Then in June, it would get kicked around, sending it to November. This back-and-forth semi orbit was broken when the two bodies balanced out, sending Nibiru on a new trajectory stretched across all the planets.The final equating mass was a classic iron asteroid about the size of Rhode Island. It flew past Earth—just missing it—headed towards the Sun. When it approached the Sun, the extreme heat expanded it, melting out any noniron contaminants. The chemical reactions then flung it off its direct hit course with the gas ball. When it reentered the vacuum of space, the freezing temperatures forced the molting ball of metal into a nearly perfect sphere—an island-sized cannonball destined for Theia. The smooth iron ball reached Theia within days, slipping right through the troposphere into the hydrogen-encompassed surface. The massive collection of hydrogen invites the subzero metal in without disruption. Unlike an oxygen-filled atmosphere chafing an object into flames, a hydrogen-filled atmosphere nurtures it like a child jumping into a hamper of warm, freshly cleaned sheets. The absorption of the massive metal bead was what tipped the planet into equilibrium with the Earth; it was the yank that stretched the spring, breaking the gravitational coefficient between the bodies. The alterations locked the two on the same orbital path. The new positions gave them approximately 180-days to enjoy a lone orbit before the inevitable clash of singularity occurs.Just shy of a half a year later, the two planets neared the other. All the other planets in the solar system felt the oncoming doom resonate through the median of spacetime. It is as if they all stopped their orbiting paths—if only for an instant. They then sat back to enjoy the show, observing the beautiful catastrophe about to occur.On day 178, the facing surface materials of Earth and Theia began pushing back to the opposite ends of the planets like blowing air on a spoonful of thick soup. The extreme increase in gravity brought on by the planets closing in on the other, ripped the atmospheres open, uniformly separating the gases that previously shelled the worlds. On day 179, the friction from Theia’s separating atmosphere rubbing against outer space causes the separated hydrogen collection to ignite, bursting into a brilliant blue flame as if it were a celestial Bunsen burner. The force pushing the atmosphere to the opposite end of the planet makes Theia look like a spherical rocket with a translucent cobalt flame. This unforeseen reaction sends Theia accelerating out of its head on trajectory with Earth. On day 180, the fiery blue flames disappeared, leaving behind the first liquid surface Theia had ever known. The intensity of the outer layer of burning hydrogen caused the lower layer to fuse with the oxygen surface of Theia, generating a clear blue exterior free of any life and contaminants. The entire planet looked like the beachfront of a Caribbean Island. For a brief moment in history, two crystal blue planets circled the Sun.On day 181, Earth and Theia met their destined collision. Because Theia had been knocked out of orbit, it was on a rogue path headed outward or possibly into a new alignment further away from the Sun. But it was too late; the two planets had come too close to miss the inevitable obliteration. Earth had the Sun on its side, helping it remain in its orbit. Theia then came closer and closer until about 70% of its mass struct Earth’s spinning body. Oceans slapped together like two sumo wrestlers slick with oil. The connection generated such friction that lightning bolts spread out in all directions. The crooked beams of light crawled across each planet's surfaces, crackling so loud that the soundwaves carried particles into space, allowing the sound to be taken to other worlds. Not a single object in the solar system went untouched by this impact. The water from the two planets then mixed together, creating mega waves half the size of the Earth. Theia had been shaken from stability, so the majority of its surface melts into Earth’s. Following the collision—for a few minutes—all of Earth’s aquatic life resided within a standing wave the shape of a steep bowl. The waves then shot to the back of Earth, pulling water back, exposing the barren seabed. Theia had only just formed water the day prior, so the base of its liquid surface was still the metallic color of its magnesium core. There had been a layer of various elements protecting the inner body until the force blew it back. The magnesium core then moved into the Earth’s crust as it sideswiped the planet. Fractures broke in the seabed of Earth, exposing its molting lava core, oozing out an array of liquidized alloys that separate and settle into gold, silver, and other precious elements. Shortly after the collision, the waves sent to the opposite end of the planet make their way back around after meeting themselves. While the water traveled the globe, the core of Theia wedged itself within the Earth’s earth like shooting a pinball into a thick piece of clay, leaving it half lodged on the surface.The magnesium core of Theia sat for an instant pivoted in the calmness of the storm. This element keeps its atomic form until it mixes with water, which causes a reaction so powerful that it separates the hydrogen from the H2O—igniting simultaneously. When the massive floods of water began pouring in, they caught fire. It looked like blue versions of black lava rolling across the land, inflaming everything it encounters. As the first droplets of water touch the metal, spurts of hydrogen begin flinging off, quickly catching fire. Then more water drowns the metal, putting it out for a moment. Once the reaction restarts, a blast equivalent to thousands of atomic bombs blows Theia’s core to pieces. The force sent a fourth of its mass outward, creating a belt of debris that orbits the Earth. Along with the scattering of the core, pools of water plopped into space, quickly forming into building-sized icicles that flew outward like a fleet of warships preparing for battle. The bulk of them headed towards Nibiru, ripping through its atmosphere. The collection of pointy objects then plunged themselves deep into the crust the way an angry porcupine would to a patch of smooth threatening skin. The ice littered the planet’s surface with everything it needs to form life on its next orbit into the habitable zone.The two bodies eventually came to a calm, fusing into a new Earth. At the same time, the externally blasted chunks collected like scattered magnets in its orbit. Within a few million years, the Earth reformed its liquid surface, surrounding a large patch of land where the collision occurred. Then, tides began flowing in and out—momentum caused by Earth’s brand-new moon built from the wreckage of the crash.