Space – The debris agglomeration after the collision between Theia and Earth was much faster than expected
According to the news studyAnd the the moon It may have formed within a few hours and not as many years as scientists had hitherto imagined. Works researchers From NASA and Durham University (UK) were published this Tuesday in the magazine Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The moon formed after the collision between Theia and Earthabout 4.5 billion years ago, he remembers HuffPost. So far, the most realistic hypothesis has been that Our satellite It may take several months or even years to form a debris agglomeration from this collision.
Soon, NASA returned new samples
But the composition of the lunar rocks returned by the various Apollo missions does not match this theory. If it took years for the moon to form, it must have consisted largely of Theia debris. However, analyzes reveal a composition broadly similar to Earth.
So the study authors formulated the hypothesis that the moon formed within a few hours. By running simulations of this scenario, they discovered that the composition of the satellite would be 60% terrestrial, a number much closer to the results found in the samples (…) Read more in 20 minutes
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