Have you ever looked up at Earth’s Moon and wondered where it came from? Most scientists agree that a small planet called Theia collided with the young Earth 4.5 billion years ago. Most of the debris from this giant impact coalesced to become the Moon we see today. But where did the rest of Theia go? Qian Yuan and his colleagues hypothesize that Earth absorbed parts of Theia during the impact, and that these remnants of Theia remain deep inside Earth to this day.
Scientists believe that waves called mechanical energy waves Seismic wavesAs it passes through certain zones inside the Earth, its speed slows down. Large slow states Previous researchers have suggested that these zones are graveyards of ancient ocean floors that sunk into the Earth’s interior during plate tectonics, but Yuan’s team proposes that these zones could be the remains of Theia.
The research team found that the LLVP contains gases such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. Volatile substancesVolatiles are most likely present during the formation of solar systems and planets, when material floating in space begins to accumulate. Because volatiles are light, they can escape into space if they get the chance. When Earth and Theia collided, volatiles from both planets were caught up in the collision. Scientists believe that most of the volatiles escaped into space, but Yuan and his colleagues suggested that some of Theia may have captured these volatiles and sunk deep inside the Earth, forming the LLVP.
To test whether the LLVP is a remnant of Theia, the researchers used a computer model designed to test how different types of solid matter interact with each other. Thermal evolution modelHe explained that other researchers have shown that Theia is made of a much denser material than Earth, so they wanted to test whether Theia’s denser material would mix completely with Earth’s or remain separate.
The researchers used a thermal evolution model to randomly scatter chunks of Theia-like material throughout a mass of Earth-like material and calculate how well they would mix. They ran eight models with chunks of different sizes, densities, and temperatures. In almost all of these models, they found that Theia’s material sank deep into the Earth and coalesced into LLVP-like mountains without mixing with Earth’s material.
The researchers performed seven giant impact simulations to further explore how Theia interacted with the young Earth. They used these simulations to collide Theia with Earth and calculate how that impact would have affected the Earth’s interior. These simulations found that after the collision with Theia, denser, more solid material sank toward the center, while less dense material stayed toward the surface, resulting in a layered Earth’s interior. The researchers explain that these simulations also suggest that denser material from Theia sunk deep inside the Earth without mixing.
The researchers concluded that Theia’s remains may have sunk to Earth and coalesced into a region similar to the LLVP, where it remained for the next 4.5 billion years. They further proposed that if Theia’s material was preserved inside the Earth for billions of years, the composition of the Earth’s interior could have changed.
They suggested that future researchers test their hypothesis by comparing the composition of the LLVP with basalts found on the Moon to see if it matches up. They also suggested that researchers use newer, more accurate models of Earth’s thermal evolution to further explore how Theia’s impact with Earth may have affected the evolution of Earth’s interior and the formation of the LLVP.
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Source: sciworthy.com
