A new study by a group of eminent scientists has revealed that two planets collided about 4.5 billion years ago, merging to form a new planet known as Earth.
The study which was published in the Journal Science Magazine was conducted by six distinguished scientists at the University of California, Loss Angels (UCLA). According to the study, the early Earth was mixed with a baby planet called Theia following a head on collision.
The collision between the early Earth and Theia was said to be too violent that it also formed the moon.
In the past, it was believed that the Moon was created when a smaller planet called Theia grazed the Earth and broke up, sending a smaller chunk into space where it was caught in Earth’s gravity. In 2014, a team of German scientists reported that the Moon also has its own unique ratio of oxygen isotopes, different from Earth. But this new study has refuted this claim by the Germans.
The authors concluded that the collision between Theia and the early Earth was so violent that the two planets effectively melded together to form a new planet, a chunk of which was knocked off to form the Moon.
The researchers said they used state-of-the-art technology and techniques to make extraordinarily precise and careful measurements, and verified them with UCLA’s new mass spectrometer.
Lead author of the study and professor of geochemistry and cosmochemistry at UCLA, Edward Young said “We don’t see any difference between the Earth’s and the Moon’s oxygen isotopes; they’re indistinguishable. Theia was thoroughly mixed into both the Earth and the Moon, and evenly dispersed between them. This explains why we don’t see a different signature of Theia in the Moon versus the Earth.”
Culled from anonhq.com