Origins of the Moon Challenged

The commonly accepted theory among scientists concerning Moon formation could be altered by a new study of lunar isotopes. (Variations of elements containing differing amounts of neutrons).

Luna Credit: NASA

Nearly half of the Moon was postulated to be from Theia, a planetary body, thought to have collided with Earth four point five billion years ago. The recent study by Junjun Zhang, an isotope geo-chemist at the Chicago Center for Cosmo-chemistry and his team challenged this premise. Initially, an analysis of twenty-four rocks from the lunar surface revealed a paucity of indications concerning similarities between the Moon and Earth. However, the group failed to consider the effect of cosmic rays, streams of charged particles racing through space. After amending their research on the Moon’s isotopes of titanium, they found its ratio to be in the ballpark of our planet’s chemistry.

The unlikelihood of Theia’s chemistry being nearly identical to the Earth prompted scientists to reconsider their model. They theorized, perhaps the planetary body collided and caused more joining of debris than previously suggested. This could infer, the majority of Theia’s constitution is hidden deep within the Moon, while Earth’s composition lays conspicuously on the surface.

Suggestions of a collision between a dual moon systems arose as well, inferring that one of our past satellites had a chemistry similar to the Earth. Scientists cannot know for sure, whether their ideas are correct or not, they are still theories. However, the research team plans on conducting more experiments on the isotopes of different elements found on the Moon.

You can read more about these findings at http://news.yahoo.com/moon-formation-theory-challenged-study-160608598.html