Researchers have unveiled new findings that reshape our understanding of the Moon’s formation and Earth’s early hydration.
They discovered that the Moon likely originated from Earth’s mantle, not from the collision with the protoplanet Theia as previously thought. Moreover, this research supports the idea that Earth’s water may have been present from the start, challenging the theory that it was delivered by later meteorite impacts.
Discovery of Moon’s Origin and Earth’s Early Water
A team of researchers from the University of Göttingen and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) has made a significant discovery about the origins of the Moon and the presence of water on Earth.
Previously, scientists believed the Moon formed after a massive collision between early Earth and a protoplanet called Theia. However, new findings suggest that the Moon was primarily created from material ejected from Earth’s mantle, with minimal contribution from Theia.
The study also supports the idea that water may have been present on Earth much earlier than previously thought, rather than arriving later through asteroid impacts. These groundbreaking results were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Advanced Isotope Analysis Techniques
To reach these conclusions, the researchers analyzed oxygen isotopes in 14 lunar samples and conducted 191 measurements on Earth minerals. Isotopes are different forms of the same element, varying only in the weight of their nucleus.
The team utilized an enhanced version of a technique called “laser fluorination,” which extracts oxygen from rock samples using a laser. Their analysis revealed an exceptionally close match between Earth and Moon samples for a specific isotope known as oxygen-17 (17O). This striking similarity has long puzzled scientists, who even coined the term “isotope crisis” to describe the difficulty in explaining it.
Theia’s Role in Moon Formation Reevaluated
“One explanation is that Theia lost its rocky mantle in earlier collisions and then slammed into the early Earth like a metallic cannonball,” says Professor Andreas Pack, Managing Director of Göttingen University’s Geoscience Centre and Head of the Geochemistry and Isotope Geology Division. “If this were the case, Theia would be part of the Earth’s core today, and the Moon would have formed from ejected material from the Earth’s mantle. This would explain the similarity in the composition of the Earth and the Moon.”
New Insights into Earth’s Hydration
The data obtained also provide an insight into the history of water on Earth: according to a widespread assumption, it only arrived on Earth after the formation of the Moon through a series of further impacts known as the “Late Veneer Event.” As the Earth was hit much more frequently by these impacts than the Moon, there should also be a measurable difference between the oxygen isotopes – depending on the origin of the material that impacted.
“However, since the new data shows this is not the case, many types of meteorites can be ruled out as the cause of the ‘late veneer’,” explains first author Meike Fischer, who was working at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen at the time of the research. “Our data can be explained particularly well by a class of meteorites called ‘enstatite chondrites’: they are isotopically similar to the Earth and contain enough water to be solely responsible for the Earth’s water.”
Reference: “Oxygen isotope identity of the Earth and Moon with implications for the formation of the Moon and source of volatiles” by Meike Fischer, Stefan T. M. Peters, Daniel Herwartz, Paul Hartogh, Tommaso Di Rocco and Andreas Pack, 16 December 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2321070121
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3 Comments
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