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Evidence Of Planet That Formed Moon May have been Found In Rock Samples

posted by martyb on Friday June 06 2014, @01:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the theory-of-theia dept.

lhsi writes:

The BBC has a report that evidence has been found in lunar rock samples of a planetismal (called Theia) that was thought to have crashed into the Earth to form the Moon. The conclusion is based on a difference in oxygen isotope ratios detected in lunar rock samples returned from the Apollo space missions versus terrestrial samples.

The report is published in the journal Science [abstract]; report is paywalled.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by gman003 on Friday June 06 2014, @05:37PM

    by gman003 (4155) on Friday June 06 2014, @05:37PM (#52318)

    The impact generated a lot of heat - even if they were already solid rock (they weren't - they had cool surfaces but molten interiors), they would have melted.

    Space is a good insulator. It takes time to radiate that kind of heat away, especially when gravity has pulled you into a minimal-surface-area-for-volume sphere.

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