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Molten Core Inside The Moon?
beggs writes: "The Times (free reg et al.) is running an article about the possibility of a molten core inside the moon and that this, if confirmed may lend support the the theory that the moon is the child of a violent collision between mother earth and some other heavenly body in the distance past."
Darwin's (no, George Darwin, Charles's son) idea about planetary fission to form the Moon doesn't work. There's insufficent angular momentum in the system to make it work. The giant impact model is the ONLY model that makes sense right now. (The tidal locking of the Moon causing it to show us one face at all times has nothing to do with anything.)
In fact, the original poster is correct: if the Moon formed in a giant impact, it appears that it should be almost all rock akin to Earth's mantle. The iron and other metallic elements would have sunk into the interior of the Earth, being lost to the disk of debris what would go on to form the Moon.