In Earth’s early infancy, some 100 million years after it formed, our planet collided with another planet known as Theia.
Originally, scientists had thought that the planets collision was more of a sideswipe, however the latest findings have scientists believing that the planets actually had a massive head on collision.
The impact was so incredible that Theia was left as nothing more than debris, which over time merged with the Earth to form a single larger planet, and our natural satellite, the Moon.
New analysis of rock samples which were retrieved during the Apollo Moon landings show an identical ratio of oxygen isotopes to materials collected here on Earth – which scientists say should not be possible if the collision was ‘simply’ a sideswipe rather than a head on collision.
“Theia was thoroughly mixed into both the Earth and the moon, and evenly dispersed between them,” said UCLA geochemist Edward Young.”This explains why we don’t see a different signature of Theia in the moon versus the Earth.”
Check out a cool video of the theory below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hahpE8b6fDI
