Groundbreaking Study Reveals Earth May Have Had Multiple Moons Post-Collision 45 Billion Years Ago
A Wild Discovery Suggests Earth Had Multiple Hidden Moons
Our planet's primordial past was so much more complex than we thought.
The Origin of Earth's Moons
The Earth-Moon system originated from a collision with a protoplanet named Theia about 45 billion years ago when Earth was just 100 million years old. According to the prevailing theory, the impact ejected a large amount of material into the Earth's orbit, which eventually coalesced into the Moon.
Some 45 billion years ago, many scientists say Earth had a meetup with Theia, another planetary object the size of Mars. The collision, they say, threw a lot of debris into space, which coalesced into our Moon.
A New Twist to the Tale
However, a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, suggests that the Earth may have had multiple moons in the aftermath of this cataclysmic event.
The study, published in the journal Nature, analyzed the composition of lunar rocks brought back by the Apollo missions. The researchers found that the composition of these rocks was different from that of Earth's mantle, which is the layer of the Earth beneath the crust.
This suggests that the Moon did not form solely from material ejected from the Earth. Instead, it may have been composed of a mixture of material from both Earth and Theia.
This new finding raises the possibility that Earth may have had multiple moons in the past. These moons may have been smaller than the modern-day Moon and may have been gradually absorbed into the Earth or ejected from its orbit.
Conclusion
The discovery of multiple moons in Earth's ancient past is a groundbreaking finding that challenges our understanding of the formation of our planet and its natural satellite. It opens up new avenues of research and raises intriguing questions about the early history of the Earth-Moon system and the potential for extraterrestrial life.
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