Long lost Moon-forming planet formed in the inner Solar System, new analysis shows
Moon’s precursor planet, Theia, disappeared billions ago, leaving scientists no direct chemical evidence to support the hypothesis. Now a team of astromers in France, Germany and the United States have analysed ancient lunar and terrestrial rocks to trace where Theia came from.
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00:00Fear, we believe, is an ancient planet that smashed into the Earth about four and a half billion years ago.
00:21It was probably around the size of Mars, and when it smashed into the Earth, it essentially demolished itself.
00:27It kicked up a lot of debris into space, along with some of the Earth, and over time, that debris coalesced together to form the Moon.
00:45The only remnants we have are bits of rock that are embedded within the Earth and also that make up the Moon.
00:51So by studying those rocks and their chemical signatures, we can begin to paint a picture of where Thea came from.
00:57What we tend to find is that objects in different parts of the solar system will share similar isotope ratios.
01:03So if you can determine Thea's own isotope ratios, you can determine where it came from.
01:09One of the things about this research that does make it so exciting is not only is it helping to paint a picture of what happened to the Earth four and a half billion years ago, but also it's able to almost exactly pinpoint where this object came from.
01:31We're talking about a planet that doesn't exist anymore. Thea hasn't existed in four and a half billion years. It was completely vaporized, essentially, and yet with a good amount of precision, we can figure out where it came from.
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