The moon isn't just a pretty orb hanging in the sky. It's actually been deeply influential throughout human history. It helps us

till time, drives us to pursue science, inspires religious thoughts, and much more. This is Cosmos

quickly and I'm Clara Moskowitz.

Here to tell us all about how special the moon is,

is Rebecca Boyle, author of the new book Our Moon,

How Earth's Celestial Companion transformed the planet, guided

evolution, and made us who we are.

Out January 16th from Random House.

Hi Becky, thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me.

So this book is really fascinating

and covers a broad range of topics.

Tell me a little bit more about the main idea behind the book and what you're trying to get across.

Well, I've always loved the moon personally and it's kind of interesting when I write about

astronomy it's sort of this like forgotten object and if anything it's annoying for

professional astronomers because it's so bright you have to do sort of deep sky

astronomy when it's not in the sky and I always kind of felt a little bit defensive about it like the moon is worth looking at the moon is fun and

That's kind of what led me to this book

It turns out that the science of the moon's formation is actually very heated and very dynamic right now.

One of the inspirations for this book was looking at how the moon came to be.

And it turns out that that story is a lot more complicated

than we thought it was.

...