United States – A recent study, which included mineral ore in the depths of the moon, revealed new evidence of the formation of the moon as a result of an ancient planet colliding with the Earth a long time ago.
This planetary collision, which is believed to have occurred regarding 4.5 billion years ago, saw a Mars-sized planet called Theia shatter into fragments of hot lava upon collision with our planet.
Scientists said that some of the remains of the planet “Theia” appear to be buried in the form of dense and huge “dots” in the depths of Africa and the tectonic plates of the Pacific Ocean, but there is not sufficient evidence of the whereregardings of the rest of the “Theia” debris.
Now, new data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft have found large deposits of iron ore and titanium deep within the moon, indicating that other remnants of Theia formed Earth’s moon.
Planetary geophysicist Adrian Brockett of the German Aerospace Center in Berlin described the GRAIL results as “enchanting.”
His team’s new paper, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, focused on “gravitational anomalies” deep beneath the moon’s surface: dense, heavy pockets of matter identified by the GRAIL spacecraft’s sensors.
“Analyzing these variations in the moon’s gravitational field allowed us to peek beneath the surface,” Brockett said.
Two similar dense and unusual regions at the base of the Earth’s mantle, known as LLVPs, lent some credence to the theory that a planetary collision led to the formation of the Moon. One of them is located under the African tectonic plate, and the other is located under the Pacific tectonic plate.
Its existence was confirmed when geologists found that seismic waves slowed down significantly at a depth of 2,900 kilometers in the two regions, which is different from other parts of the Earth.
Scientists believe that the material in LLVPs is between 2 and 3.5% denser than the mantle surrounding Earth.
It is noteworthy that last year, researchers at the California Institute of Technology came up with the idea that LLVPs evolved from a small amount of “Theia” that entered the lower mantle of the early Earth.
To support this, the team asked Professor Hongping Ding, at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, to explore this idea using his pioneering methods.
After conducting a series of simulations, Ding discovered that following the collision that led to the formation of the Moon, a large amount of Theia (regarding 2% of the Earth’s mass) entered the lower mantle of the ancient planet.
“By carefully analyzing a wide range of rock samples, coupled with more accurate giant impact models and Earth evolution models, we can infer the physical composition and orbital dynamics of the primordial Earth,” said Qian Yuan, a geophysicist at Caltech who also worked on the project. “And Thea.”
Ding and Yuan’s team published the study in the journal Nature late last year.
Source: Daily Mail
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2024-05-12 10:31:47
