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As the study contends, a "planetary embryo" named Theia collided with the early Earth and split evenly into two parts: one subsumed by the Earth, and another that became the Earth's moon.
“We don’t see any difference between the Earth’s and the moon’s oxygen isotopes; they’re indistinguishable,” Edward Young, UCLA professor of geochemistry and cosmochemistry and lead author of the study, explained in a news release.
“Theia was thoroughly mixed into both the Earth and the moon, and evenly dispersed between them,” Young added. “This explains why we don’t see a different signature of Theia in the moon versus the Earth.”
Hence, Earth is really a composite of two planets: Earth and Theia.
Why would the oxygen isotopes be different on different planets in the solar system? Was the gas, dust and debris cloud not uniform?
My understanding was that Theia's iron core was largely absorbed by Earth, giving us a larger iron core than would otherwise have been the case. And leaving the moon with a proportionally smaller iron core.
“We don’t see any difference between the Earth’s and the moon’s oxygen isotopes; they’re indistinguishable,” Edward Young, UCLA professor of geochemistry and cosmochemistry and lead author of the study, explained in a news release.
“Theia was thoroughly mixed into both the Earth and the moon, and evenly dispersed between them,” Young added. “This explains why we don’t see a different signature of Theia in the moon versus the Earth.”
I personally think that this is a case of stretching too far. "Thorough mixing" don't seem required, especially since this is crust material, which not only would settle out from the impact cloud somewhat evenly, but also be subject to later less significant impacts, such as passing through a galactic dust cloud, cometary impacts, etc.
There IS an anomaly near the core of earth that very well could be a remnant of Theia's core. I can think of no more likely cause.
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