Audio description content. Colour image of the moon showing the surface in shades of green and blue, with cracks throughout revealing bright orange lava flows.

Panel text content. Born in a giant cosmic collision. In the early days of the solar system the earth was a hot, soft ball of molten lava. During this time a mars-sized rogue planet called Theia crashed into the earth. Great lumps were torn off and these came together to form our moon. Scientists have pieced this story together by comparing moon and earth rock. The moon was once volcanic. In its low gravity, the eruptions would have sent fire fountains hundreds of kilometres into space. There are lava tunnels that exist on the moon today. Scientists believe our moon still has a molten core, much like the earth. Future missions will search for signs of moonquakes and other tectonic activity to test this theory. An inset image shows a cutaway of the moon, showing the moon’s crust and mantle over partially melted lava, a liquid outer core and a solid inner core. This image shows a huge area of the moon believed to have filled with lava that flowed out from a tectonic rift around its edges. These areas, called Maria, can be seen from earth as darker patches on our moon.