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A giant collision between the young Earth and a smaller protoplanet has long been the prevailing theory for the Moon’s formation. Such an origin would explain features such as the Moon’s lack of many volatile compounds, which would have been vapourized during the collision with Earth.
Such an enormous impact early in Earth’s development should have left some traces. Yuan and his colleagues wondered whether those traces might include the strange regions in Earth’s mantle — the layer between the crust and the core. Scientists call these formations large low-velocity provinces, because seismic waves travel more slowly through them than they do through the rest of the mantle.
An interdisciplinary international research team has recently discovered that a massive anomaly deep within the Earth's interior may be a remnant of the collision about 4.5 billion years ago that formed the moon.
It's pretty fascinating that they can detect such a remnant.
The Thea Gaia idea has been around for years, with models indicating it not only plausible but probable. There are gravitational anomalies at different points on Earth as well.
What was in the article was an interesting possible confirmation, but the real importance has more to do with the unique nature of Earth and how that affects the Drake equation. The impact, the moon mix-mastering the surface and slowly receding, the transition to a water planet, all make the few requirements for life in the Drake equation seem hopelessly simplistic.
I've said it before. If there is sentient organic life other than on Earth, it is so rare that one planet per galaxy would be a generous guess at how commonly it occurs.
The Thea Gaia idea has been around for years, with models indicating it not only plausible but probable. There are gravitational anomalies at different points on Earth as well.
What was in the article was an interesting possible confirmation, but the real importance has more to do with the unique nature of Earth and how that affects the Drake equation. The impact, the moon mix-mastering the surface and slowly receding, the transition to a water planet, all make the few requirements for life in the Drake equation seem hopelessly simplistic.
I've said it before. If there is sentient organic life other than on Earth, it is so rare that one planet per galaxy would be a generous guess at how commonly it occurs.
Unfortunately, we don't really know if the unique history of the Earth is the only way to make a habitable planet that can evolve intelligent life. Certainly the early collision component is not that unique; there are other planets in the system that show indications of primordial protoplanetary collisions.
Unfortunately, we don't really know if the unique history of the Earth is the only way to make a habitable planet that can evolve intelligent life. Certainly the early collision component is not that unique; there are other planets in the system that show indications of primordial protoplanetary collisions.
I agree somewhat with that, much as one cannot prove a negative. How a collision occurs and what is colliding would make a difference. Two gas giants colliding might not make the requirement for organic life any easier. With Earth, the surface material contains elements created from large stellar events that only occurred long after first generation stars.
While carbon and water are focused on as building blocks for life, the trace elements are also important. Find a medical site online and see the effects of the lack of various elements and minerals in the human body. Now imagine a world that doesn't contain those elements at all - or those elements are only locked deep in the core because of the peaceful cooling from a liquid state, where heavier elements sank, or lighter ones were stripped by stellar wind or radiation.
The Thea Gaia idea has been around for years, with models indicating it not only plausible but probable. There are gravitational anomalies at different points on Earth as well.
What was in the article was an interesting possible confirmation, but the real importance has more to do with the unique nature of Earth and how that affects the Drake equation. The impact, the moon mix-mastering the surface and slowly receding, the transition to a water planet, all make the few requirements for life in the Drake equation seem hopelessly simplistic.
I've said it before. If there is sentient organic life other than on Earth, it is so rare that one planet per galaxy would be a generous guess at how commonly it occurs.
I find the subject of abiogenesis fascinating. For about 60 years now, there have been experiments done in the lab to create simple life, but none has been successful.
I am in the "Rare Earth Hypothesis" camp.
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