Abstract
From the late 18th century through the 19th century, there was great interest in the surface features of the Moon, particularly among observers in Europe. The dominant theory was that the lunar craters were volcanic in origin, but a number of dissenters argued for an impact origin, i.e., the impact on the Moon of bodies from elsewhere in the solar system. Some of the dissenters bolstered their arguments by developing model experiments, showing the effects of impacts of projectiles on various surfaces. Many of the dissenters’ ideas had elements that proved to be accurate.
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Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge Mr. Gerald L. Geiger for his translations of sections of papers by Gruithuisen, Althans, and the Thiersches.
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Cummings, W. (2019). Gaping at the Moon—18th and 19th Century Ideas on the Formation of Lunar Craters and Other Surface Features. In: Evolving Theories on the Origin of the Moon. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29119-8_1
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