An international research team led by scientists from Arizona State University in the United States has discovered that planet Earth contains within it material from another strange planet that existed in the solar system billions of years ago, which solves a mystery that is several decades old.
Where did the moon come from?
The most convincing theories for scientists now believe that there was a small planet called “Theia,” approximately the size of Mars, that collided with the Earth about 4.5 billion years ago, causing widespread chaos that led to part of the matter emerging from the collision gathering and remaining in orbit around the Earth, and that was it. the moon.
In the beginning, the Moon was very close to the Earth to the point that it affected its rotation. About one and a half billion years ago, the “length of a day” was only 18 hours, but the Moon moved away from the Earth little by little, and now it is doing the same thing as well, as it moves away from the Earth by 4 Centimeters per year, which means that the Earth’s day is getting longer, but only by a small amount. (The following video is a simulation of the origin of the moon)
But there have always been questions about the fate of what remains of “Theia,” as scientists do not find a trace of it anywhere in the solar system, especially the asteroid belt. This caused a team of scientists to doubt the validity of this theory.
This coincided in the 1980s with another mystery, as a team of geophysicists discovered two pieces of matter, each of which was the size of an entire continent. The two pieces were composed of non-terrestrial materials and were located near the center of the Earth, one of them under Africa and the other under the Pacific Ocean.
Scientists discovered the presence of these pieces through seismic waves, which are vibrations resulting from an earthquake, explosion, or any similar energy source, and which spread within the Earth. Like every other wave, the speed and direction of these waves are affected by the medium through which they pass, and thus they explain to scientists the difference between the density of the Earth’s components and, consequently, their composition. By studying how these waves travel through the body of our planet, scientists have discovered the existence of these pieces.
For the past five decades, scientists have wondered why these strange objects, known among scientists as “large low-velocity provinces,” exist.
A team of geophysicists discovered two pieces of matter, each one the size of an entire continent, inside the Earth (Arizona State University)
Where did the planet Theia disappear?
The study published by this team in the journal Nature indicates that these large pieces are nothing but the remains of the planet Theia, and this explains the disappearance of the planet Theia from the solar system, as it was absorbed into the interior of the young Earth to form these pieces, while the debris gathered Remaining from the collision with the moon.
To reach these results, this research team built models to simulate the structure of “Theia” using data obtained from studying the structure of the two pieces via seismic waves, and the structure of Earth’s geological satellite.
The simulation also showed that the impact was sideways, and that a large portion of the energy resulting from Theia’s collision with the Earth remained in the upper half of the mantle below the Earth’s crust, leaving the Earth’s lower mantle colder than previous low-resolution impact models estimated. Hence, the remnants of “Theia” remained largely stable, according to statement Official press release of the University of Arizona.
