The Capture Hypothesis

In the capture hypothesis, the Moon was formed somewhere else and was later captured by the gravitational field of the Earth. In a sense this begs the question, since it doesn't tell us where the Moon came from but only how it came to be associated with the Earth.

Presumably the Moon could not have formed too far away from the Earth in the solar nebula or it would have a composition too different from Earth for the capture hypothesis to be valid. As noted in the right panel, there are some problems that are associated with this idea when one considers specifics.

Animation: theories for the origin of the Moon