Matalog wrote:
Does anybody know the name of the mars-sized planet that supposedly
hit the
earth and created the moon was called? I was watching Natural World
just
now and it said the name of the planet - it began with V or F i
think.


Thanks for any help.

Since the event was a couple of billion years ago before any life
existed on Earth, there was no one around to name it (unless you
believe in ETs). Heck, not even the Earth had a name then. Now, it
probably likely that the planetologists have given the impacting body a
name; meteorites are usually given the name of the crater they create,
but since there's no evidence of a crater, it's more likely to be
called something like Proto-Moon, or Proto-Luna. (Planetologists tend
not to be imaginative in naming things in my experience, although in
the last decade or so they've gotten better.) It's possible some fringe
group, astrologists or ufo believers have given it a name (maybe from
non-European mythology, Shiva would probably be appropriate), but it's
not recogized by any scientific group.