Wednesday, April 7, 2021

We may be standing on part of another planet

 

I was a bit mind-boggled to read this article.


Scientists seeking to explain a series of seemingly inexplicable formations deep within the Earth’s surface may have found an explanation: They came from outer space.

Researchers with Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration said in a recently published paper that the “continent-sized Large Low Shear Velocity provinces” identified in Earth’s mantle—essentially giant formations of rock the origins of which scientists have struggled for decades to explain—may have been formed by Theia, the proto-planet thought to have slammed into the ancient Earth billions of years ago. 

The collision between Earth and Theia is hypothesized to have ejected a significant portion of Earth into outer space; those fragments would have eventually coalesced under Earth’s gravity to form the Moon.


There's more at the link.

I'm no geologist, but given the temperatures in and beneath the earth's mantle, I'd assumed that any bits and pieces of another planet would long since have melted and combined with Earth's own planetary material in an unidentifiable slag.  Looks like I was wrong.

The thought that we may be standing (at a few miles' remove, of course) on the remains of another planet, one that formed our Moon out of the ejecta caused by its collision with Earth, is . . . somehow surreal.

Peter


13 comments:

kurt9 said...

It means the Earth is rather anomalous. I mean, how often do these "big whacks" occur in planet formation? Our Earth could indeed be a "rare Earth" in terms of life formation.

Sam L. said...

Annnnnd, when will the "next one" hit???????????????? Tunguska was "just a kiss" in passing.

Joseph R. said...

Space is very, very big. I'm curious what the odds are for the collision of planets.

As a Christian, I love the idea of God sending enormous masses colliding into each other in the vastness of space, orchestrating their movements in order to build a world for us to live on. Kinda helps me visualize the grandeur of the understated, matter of fact account of Creation in Genesis.

heresolong said...

Shouldn't it be "They Came From Outer Space"?

s said...

That would explain a lot

David

Rob said...

Another example of just not knowing enough, yet, to ask the right questions.

Waidmann said...

"And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
"Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

It seems to me that the default setting for "science" when they hit something they can't understand is to say "It came from Outer Space".

Waidmann

1chota said...

Atheists, they are.

Greg said...

My son is a PhD geologist. I asked him years ago how they could determine that a meteorite was from Mars or the Moon after being ejected into space by impact events. It turns out they actually can, but the terminology and math goes WAY over my head (it has to do with rare isotope ratios). But the bottom line conclusion is that it is possible that life originated on Mars and was seeded to Earth by meteorites. Making all of us Martian immigrants in a sense.
The theorized impact of Theia though is billions of years before life came about and the Earth at that time was a scorching hot ball of molten rock.

Mikey said...

All rocks come from outer space. We're in outer space right now. We just happen to be riding around on a rock in space that has a biome that goes from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the atmosphere. Compared to the size of the rock (Earth) we're on that biome is eggshell thin.

John T. Block said...

One theory for life developing on Earth is the moon acting as a "sheild" of sorts, blocking big asteroids of the K-E event sized from resetting the evolution clock o. A regular basis....

Rick in NY said...

Sadly, it's all conjecture based on assumptions based on hypothetical guesses... the human race has not existed long enough to know how accurate our geologic clock (radioactive decay) is over a few thousand years, much less millions or billions. And that's just the clock!

We don't know enough to even ask the right questions about most things out there. My grandpa put it thusly many years ago.

Take all of mankind understanding of everything, and it fits in a teacup. What we know exists but don't understand fits in a bucket. But what we don't know is if that bucket came out of a bathtub, a pond, or an ocean.

We don't know how much we don't know...

Roy said...

I generally ignore crap like this.

When it comes right down to it, it is all just SWAG.

Scientific Wild-Ass Guess.