That proto-Earth (called Gaia) clashed severely with another early planet, Theia, while tracing its orbit around the sun. Due to Gaia’s large size, it dominated the collision and began to form the shape of Earth as we know it today. Meanwhile, much of the debris from the collision ...
Second, there’s spin. The Earth spins much faster than the other rocky planets, and the Moon orbits around us at a surprisingly swift pace. Something deep in our past must have provided all that energy, and a collision with another protoplanet explains it with ease. https://www.youtube....
ResultsWe find a probable origin of the Earth impactor at a semi-major axis of 1:16 AU < aTheia < 1:195 AU; a Theia inside the orbit of Earth suffers from collisions on much shorter time scales. ConclusionWe can provide a statistical estimation of the collision velocities as well as ...
Most scientists agree that a major collision 4.5 billion years ago with a protoplanet named Theia formed the Earth-Moon system. Now, a new study from the University of Nevada argues that, out of the chaos of that collision, polar circumbinary “moons” might’ve existed in the early days...
Direct collision hypothesis The collision speed may have been higher than originally assumed, and this higher velocity may have totally destroyed Theia. According to this modification, the composition of Theia is not so restricted, making a composition of up to 50% water ice possible....
One theory suggests this is how Earth's moon was formed. In 1946, Canadian geologist Reginald Daly suggested that during Earth's formation, a Mars-sized protoplanet collided with Earth. The timing of the collision was later estimated to be roughly 4.51 billion years ago. This "giant-impact"...
Another implication of Theia containing CC material is that it would be isotopically distinct from the proto-Earth, which would strongly constrain the type of collision that led to the formation of the Moon. Unlike enstatite chondrites, which strongly resemble the Earth isotopically (Javoy, 1995;...