Scientists are questioning the half-century-old “giant impact” theory in the face of a surprising similarity between rocks brought from the Moon and those from Earth.
elchi reports that while planetary scientists agree that a giant celestial body called “Theia” collided with Earth about 4.51 billion years ago to form the Moon, the details of this collision remain a major puzzle. The white minerals covering the Moon’s surface prove that the celestial body was once a giant magma ocean at temperatures of thousands of degrees.
Laboratory experiments conducted at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam are attempting to understand how this molten mass solidified by recreating the immense pressure and temperature conditions deep within the Moon. However, existing physical data do not fully match theoretical models.
The chemical similarity contradiction
The biggest problem with the formation of the Moon is that classical simulations predict that the Moon should be formed mainly from the colliding foreign body (Theia). If Theia had originated from a different region of the Solar System, its chemical composition should have been different from Earth’s. However, samples brought back during the Apollo missions show that the Moon is practically a “copy of the Earth.” This situation is forcing scientists to consider more radical scenarios, such as the Earth not being fully formed at that time and completely mixing with another body of similar size during the collision.
Şayəstə