According to a new research published in the journal called Nature, the answer to a question, “why are Moon and Earth so similar chemically,” can be found to some extent. Researchers from the French University Bordeaux and Haifa-based Israel Institute of Technology explained in the study that there are great chances that the materials which formed Earth as well as the moon are more or less similar.
The computer models reveal that the after-effects of the great collision of impactor body (called Theia) could have possibly accreted on Earth. Also, it might have been possible that a portion of the debris of Theia was ejected and coagulated, thereby forming moon.
The Findings of Study
In order to find out this revelation, the researchers studied 40 stimulation of inner planets’ growth in our solar system. These planets were formed because of the collision of smaller particles, which stuck and glued together forming the embryos of planets. When the stimulations ended, there were only three or four huge planets that were residing in the solar system.
Alessandra Mastrobuono-Battisti of Israel explains that they had the detailed data regarding the accreted of each planetesimals pertaining to every single planet. Therefore, the researchers said, they are aware of the vital compositions of these impactors as well as the planets that they have affected.
Earlier studies have however revealed that there are just 1% chances that Earth was skin to Theia in terms of chemical compositions. But, the stimulation model used by Mastrobuono-Battisti and other researchers on this study, found ten times higher resolution than the prior ones. This implies that the planetesimals on which they began were smaller. These researchers, therefore, believe that there is indeed 20-40% chances of similarity between Earth and Theia, and possibly the two are composed on same substances.
This is explaining and giving hints to the similarity with Moon because the formation of Moon is akin to that of Earth.