Where did the Moon come from and how was it formed? It’s a question that scientists have been scratching their heads over for decades.
According to the widely-accepted “giant-impact hypothesis,” the Moon was formed billions of years ago when a Mars-sized planet called Theia collided with the Earth, breaking off a large chunk in the process.
Now, researchers from the University of New Mexico say in a new paper published in Nature Geoscience that they believe they’ve found the remains of Theia buried beneath the lunar surface.
The big drawback to the impact hypothesis — as discussed at length by numerous scientists over many years — is the fact that even though oxygen isotopes in lunar rocks collected during NASA’s Apollo missions closely resemble those found on Earth, they’re strikingly different from those found on other objects in our Solar System, as explained by Science Alert.
So how could the Moon be largely made up of the remains of Theia, as many models have predicted?
Despite very small odds, Earth and Theia may have originally had similar compositions, but then been mixed up beyond recognition.