Jakarta –
Scientists have a new concept of how our planet formed. They suspect this concept solves mystery oldest about Earth.
Quoted from Independent, Thursday (4/8/2022) this idea will clarify the strange chemical composition on Earth. It can help inform the story of a different planet like ours too.
“The prevailing theory in astrophysics and cosmochemistry is that the Earth was formed from chondritic asteroids. These are relatively small and simple blocks of rock and metal that formed early in the Solar System,” explains Paolo Sossi, professor of experimental planetology at ETH Zurich.
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“The problem with this theory is that none of these mixtures of chondrites can explain the exact composition of Earth, which is much poorer in light, volatile elements such as hydrogen and helium than we thought.”
Researchers have proposed several concepts over time to explain this, suggesting that the collisions of raw materials that make up the Earth generate a large amount of heat and vaporize the lighter parts. However, Earth’s isotopic composition seems to recommend in a different way.
“Isotopes of a chemical element all have the same number of protons, although different numbers of neutrons. Isotopes with fewer neutrons are lighter and therefore have to escape more easily,” Professor Sossi said.
“If the heating evaporation theory were correct, we would find fewer of these light isotopes on Earth today than in the original chondrites. But that’s exactly what isotope measurements don’t show,” he explained.
Researchers are starting to look for bigger answers. It is assumed that the planets within the Solar System formed over time, with smaller grains rising to the planetesimals by accumulating material through their gravitational pull.
Unlike chondrites, planetesimals have been heated enough to create a separation between the metallic core and the rocky mantle. Furthermore, planetesimals that form in completely different areas of the entire Sun, or on completely different occurrences, can have very different chemical compositions.
The simulations show that not only may a combination of various planetesimals have formed Earth, a planet with Earth’s composition is essentially the end result that appears to be the most static.
“Even though we suspected it, we still found this result quite remarkable,” said Professor Sossi.
“We now not only have a mechanism that better explains formation Earthbut we also have references to explain the formation of other rocky planets.”
They add the mechanism could be used, for example, to predict how Mercury’s composition differs from that of other rocky planets. Or how rocky exoplanets from other stars might be composed.
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