Tag: early solar system
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Theia and the Moon: Early Neighbors in the Solar System
Did Theia Start as a Nearby Planet? Rethinking the Moon’s Birth For decades, scientists have told a dramatic tale: a colossal asteroid-like body named Theia collided with young Earth, smashing and mixing to birth the Moon. This violent event, believed to have occurred about 4.5 billion years ago, has been the centerpiece of our understanding…
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Were Theia and Earth Neighbors Before the Moon? Rewriting Our Origins
Introduction: A New Twist on an Ancient Tale For decades, the giant-impact hypothesis has explained how the Moon formed: a colossal collision between young Earth and a Mars-sized body named Theia, followed by a chaotic merger that left Earth with a shiny lunar companion. But recent studies are nudging scientists to rethink a crucial piece…
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Proto Earth Revealed: First Evidence of a 4.5-Billion-Year-Old Building Block Remains Discovered
Uncovering the Very Beginning of Earth Geologists and planetary scientists have unearthed what could be the oldest remnants of our planet, offering a rare glimpse into the very seeds of Earth. In a study published in Nature Geoscience, an international team led by researchers from MIT reports a chemical signature that may trace back to…
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Proto Earth Revealed: First Evidence of a 4.5-Billion-Year-Old Building Block
A Glimpse into Earth’s Distant Origins Scientists at MIT and collaborating institutions have uncovered what may be the first direct evidence of proto Earth—the primordial material that predated the giant impact that transformed our planet. Reported in Nature Geosciences, these findings hinge on a subtle imbalance in potassium isotopes detected in some of the oldest…
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Liquid Water on Ryugu Reveals a Billion-Year-Old Secret
Liquid Water on Ryugu: A Hidden Water Trail Across Time A recent study of tiny rock fragments returned from the asteroid Ryugu by JAXA’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft has upended assumptions about when and how water could move through asteroids. The research, involving scientists from the University of Tokyo among others, shows that liquid water once traversed…