New scientific revelations about the origin of the moon

Scientific research published Thursday in the journal Science found that the Moon formed from a collision between Earth and a celestial body called Theia, there are about 4.5 billion years.Theia, an object the size of Mars collided with the Earth, creating debris that came together under the influence of gravity to form the moon, planetary scientists believe most.To confirm this hypothesis, researchers have focused on the measurement of oxygen isotope ratios of titanium, silicon, and other elements.These ratios vary in the solar system, so that the similarity between those of Earth and Moon contradicts the theoretical models of the collision, according to which the Moon is mostly composed of materials from Theia, thereby making the different from the Earth in its composition.German researchers conducted further, more specific, these isotope ratios on Earth and lunar samples brought back by the Apollo missions."The differences are small and difficult to detect but they are there," said Daniel Herwartz, a geologist at the University of Cologne in Germany, for whom these results mean that "can be reasonably sure that this giant collision has occurred, which gives an idea of ​​the geochemical composition of Theia. ""The next goal is to establish the proportion of materials from Theia located in the Moon," added Mr. Herwartz.Most hypotheses believe that the moon is formed from 70 to 90% Théia materials and 10 to 30% of earth materials. However, according to some models, the Moon would be composed only 8% of materials Theia.