Sunday, June 8, 2014

Hulk Smash! Collision That Formed Our Moon Shows Up In Lunar Rocks, Study Says

Hulk Smash! Collision That Formed Our Moon Shows Up In Lunar Rocks, Study Says:

Artist's conception of two celestial bodies smacking into each other. Such a collision is believed to have formed Earth's moon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Artist’s conception of two celestial bodies smacking into each other. Such a collision is believed to have formed Earth’s moon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Billions of years ago, so the theory goes, a Mars-sized body (sometimes called “Theia”) smashed into our young planet and caused a near-catastrophe. Earth fortunately survived the risk of blowing apart, and the fragments from the crash gradually coalesced into the Moon that we see today.

Even though this happened a heck of a long time ago, scientists believe they have found traces of Theia in lunar rocks pulled from the Apollo missions.

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Read the rest of Hulk Smash! Collision That Formed Our Moon Shows Up In Lunar Rocks, Study Says (253 words)


© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2014. |
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