Hi, Nick!

They have been showing a Universe series on our History Channel here in the states and the Gerstenkorn theory was mentioned to be one of the three when they featured our Moon.

[24.4. THE CAPTURE THEORY.

According to Kaula (1971), the capture hypothesis (Alfvén, 1942, 1943a, 1946, 1954) "is an improbability, not an impossibility." However, he does not clarify why a lunar capture is improbable. In reality both observations and theoretical evidence indicate the contrary.

In the solar system there are six retrograde satellites (see table 2.1.3). [459] There is general agreement that all of them must have been captured. Figure 24.4.1 shows their orbital inclination and distance rsc, with the radius Rc of the planet they encircle as unit. (If instead the distance to the closest Lagrangian point, which may be more relevant to the capture process, is chosen, a rather similar diagram is obtained.)

The diagram shows that the orbits of the small retrograde bodies are situated in the region rsc / Rc = 200-350 and i = 145°-175°. We can well imagine that Triton originally was located in the same region but that tidal interaction has brought it closer to Neptune. The reason for this is that Triton is much larger than the other retrograde satellites, which are much too small to produce significant tidal effects. Hence observation indicates that a capture mechanism exists which results in wide capture orbits, subsequently contracting if the captured body is large enough to cause tides.

A body like the Moon may very well be captured in this manner. Furthermore, mechanisms exist (Gerstenkorn, 1955) by which the body can be transferred from such a shrinking capture orbit into a prograde orbit of the present lunar type. Therefore there could be no fundamental objection to the capture theory.] From: http://history.nasa.gov/SP-345/ch24.htm.

When they put it that way, yes, our moon could have been captured.

Interesting, they mentioned in the program that the tilt of the Earth was due from the Mars sized planet collision with Earth. If so, how does one explain Mars' tilt and eccentric orbit? Just wondering! Thanks.