Earth has one moon, Uranus has 27 and and Saturn has over 50. Venus, however, has none.

A wild new theory presented at a Royal Society conference is claiming that Earth may have stolen its only moon from Venus.

The theory, put forward by a Caltech University professor, suggests that Earth pulled Venus's moon out of Venus' orbit and into our own.
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© UnknownEarth may have stolen its only moon from Venus, according a wild new theory presented at the Royal Society
Dave Stevenson, professor of planetary science at Caltech, told the Origin of the Moon conference in London that the moon's size shows that this could have been possible.

He noted that our moon is much larger compared to our planet than other satellites are to their planets.

'The reason why it's interesting is that Earth and Venus are close to each other,' Stevenson told Space.com.

'They have similar mass, and people think they have probably formed in a similar way.

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© NASAOne major flaw is the geological similarities between samples found from Earth and the moon. These samples lend themselves more to a the ¿giant impact¿ theory which suggests that the moon formed when a planet, around the size of Mars, collided with Earth around 4.56 billion years ago
'So the question is, if Earth and Venus formed in similar ways, how come the Earth has a Moon and Venus doesn't?'

Professor Stevenson added that he isn't convinced by the theory but said it was an 'interesting possibility'.

One major flaw in the theory is the geological similarities between samples found from Earth and the moon.

These samples lend themselves more to a the 'giant impact' theory which suggests that the moon formed when a planet, around the size of Mars, collided with Earth around 4.56 billion years ago.

This collision divided Earth into two unequal parts. The smaller of these condensed into the moon.

The best simulations of this process suggest that about 80 per cent of moon ought to have come from the impactor and 20 per cent from the Earth.

Another controversial new theory suggests a giant explosion equivalent to 40 billion atomic bombs, originating from the Earth's core, somehow led to the formation of the moon.

Planetary scientist Wim van Westrenen believes this violent event took place approximately four-and-a-half billion years ago.

Van Westeren said that taken at face value, the findings suggest that the moon was once part of the Earth that was blasted into space by an enormous explosion from the Earth's fiery core.