The book, Bouncing Moon: Blueprint for a Capture Model, introduces the bouncing-capture hypothesis for the origin of the Moon in Earth’s orbit. The idea is that the Moon bounced off the Earth long ago and got captured in Earth’s gravity.

“The Moon bounced off the Earth and was captured by Earth.”

The Moon is thought to have formed independently of Earth around 4.5 billion years ago (Ga), out of similar material, and in a similar orbit around the Sun. At 3.9 Ga, the Moon collided with Earth and bounced off it, where it got stuck in Earth’s gravity.

This bounce triggered the lunar cataclysm that occurred around 3.9 Ga. The region on the Moon that made contact with Earth is the South Pole – Aitken (SPA) basin. The SPA basin is essentially an imprint of the Earth’s surface. The farside highland mountains were pushed upwards during the formation of the SPA basin. The Orientale basin is an ancient explosive volcano that was generated by the seismic effects of the bounce. The near side lunar maria (that make the “man in the Moon” pattern) were produced when a portion of Orientale’s ejecta fell back to the surface of the Moon.