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Thursday, October 18, 2012

Earth took its water from the moon


Moon could give all their water, "germ" of the Earth, scientists believe

New studies are missing puzzle to place the theory of formation of the moon as a result of the collision of Earth with a space object - a theory which has long been considered the primary version of the origin of the natural satellite of our planet. Both new research explain why the moon and the Earth have identical chemical composition, but the collision model described in these studies differ greatly, according astronews.ru.


According to one theory, proposed by scientists from the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute) the rapid rotation of the Earth in the early solar system - the duration of the day on our planet then was only 2-3 hours - has meant that the collision had been thrown into space huge portions material from which the Moon formed later. In this version, scientists assumed that the object was a collision object with a mass of 5-10% of the mass of the Earth.

Another group of scientists from the Southwest Research Institute, Colorado, USA, said that the size of the object hit was comparable to the size of Earth, and its mass was about 50% of Earth's mass.

Until and that and the other versions are their supporters, but the researchers are confident that in the near future they could accurately recreate the whole picture of a giant cosmic collision, despite the fact that it was a few billion years ago.

Scientists believe that the moon contains heavier zinc-66 than the rocks of the Earth and the asteroid. In particular, the proportion of zinc-66 in lunar stocks Zn is 3-4 times higher than for the Earth and Mars. This discovery has surprised astronomers - according to modern theories of formation of the solar system, the ratio of zinc in rocks rocky planets and asteroids were laid in the early stages of its formation and since then nothing has changed.

Experts have tried to find the cause of the difference in the isotopic composition of terrestrial and lunar rocks, following the changes in the chemical composition of the moon in different scenarios of its formation.

It was found that the current ratio of zinc-64 and zinc-66 occurs only in cases where all or most of the moon melts and turns into a cloud of hot matter. According to scientists, such an event could have occurred during the formation of our planet's companion, when her father-Theia collided with the "germ" of the Earth.

When such a collision matter Teyi and future Earth melted, and some of this gas-dust mixture was thrown into orbit. As explained by the astronomers, the ratio of the isotopes of zinc dust and gas will be different - the solid matter will be more severe zinc-66, and in the gaseous mass - light zinc-64 - because of the difference in mass of isotopes. This gas will gradually disappear from the Earth's orbit with it contained zinc-64, which explains the difference in the isotopic composition of the Moon and the planet.

"Where did the water on earth? This is an important question, because the answer will help us in the search for planets with Earth conditions. Understanding what is necessary for the formation of such conditions on the planet is very important to answer the question - how life arises" - concludes Day and his words were quoted

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