ETH Zurich has found clear evidence of how the moon formed

There are various theories about how the moon formed, but it is most likely that the moon formed after the impact of a giant celestial body. Researchers have now found more evidence for this theory.

How did the moon form – hundreds of millions of years ago? To date, this question has not been fully clarified. Some believe that the Moon could have been “separated” from the primordial Earth (“fission theory”), while others hold that the Moon formed elsewhere and was “captured” by the Earth, and a joint formation was also brought into play.

Thea’s “Giant Effect”

But one theory is an obvious favourite, the massive effect theory. Here, a planet about the size of Mars (sometimes referred to as “Theia”) is thought to have collided with the primordial Earth. The debris from this collision (a mixture of molten rock and hot gas) first formed what appeared to be a disk and later formed the moon.

Geochemists and petroleum scientists ETH Zurich They have now published a study in the journal Science Advances in which they report that the Moon “inherited” helium and neon from the Earth’s mantle. According to a press release from the researchers, this supports the “giant effect” theory. “Our discovery means that the noble gases must also be included as a factor in the theory of the giant impact,” says Henner Busemann, professor at the Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology at ETH Zurich. Researchers from Zurich, led by doctoral student Patrizia Weil, analyzed six samples of lunar meteorites, which came from NASA and were collected in Antarctica. In these samples, the content of the noble gases of neon and helium in the separated glass was determined and was much more than expected. The solar wind can be ruled out as a source, so the gases must come from within the Moon and thus ultimately be inherited from the Earth.

The researchers explain it as follows: “The young moon was volcanically active. Magma quickly gathers and solidifies at the surface. Due to rapid cooling, glass particles were formed in which the noble gases neon and helium were preserved. Lava flows more quickly. This layer of magma covered and protected from Cosmic rays, especially the solar wind.

Lunar meteorites later came to Earth through an asteroid impact, because as you can also see on the cratered surface of the moon, asteroids are constantly colliding or hitting there. Someone might also have hit a large piece of the moon and “moved” it to Earth.

See also:

Outer space, astronautics, outer space, moon, planet, stars, globe, space