Ecology
New research suggests that our planet is made up of different types of meteorites that once came together. Scientists believe that Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago from a disk of dust particles that are part of the material that makes up the Sun. These particles slowly came together and, thanks to gravity, turned into one big ball, which was the embryo of our planet.
Scientists believed that most of the bodies that joined together to form the Earth came from a narrow space zone, belonging to a subclass of meteorites called chondrites enstatites. This theory was based on the fact that there are a huge number of striking similar elements between different types of atoms, such as oxygen, nickel and chromium.
New studies of silica isotopes in rock samples and meteorites show that the Earth was most likely formed from different types of meteorites.
Geochemists from France analyzed isotopes in surface rock samples. They also studied lunar rock samples taken by NASA astronauts during lunar missions. The researchers compared these samples with meteorite samples, especially with enstatite chondrite meteorites and another type of meteorites, called achondrites, enstatites.
Using computer models of Earth's formation, the researchers calculated that a mixture of three types of meteorite components could form the right combination of oxygen, nickel and chromium isotopes in the Earth samples. Research results have shown that several chondrites, rather than enstatite chondrites alone, helped form our planet.
The fact that the composition of silica isotopes is very similar in terrestrial and lunar samples suggests that the material from which the Moon formed must have mixed with material from the Earth's crust before the formation of the Moon, so both celestial bodies have very similar properties.
Scientists suggest that the Moon was created as a result of the fall of a giant asteroid to Earth, shortly after the formation of our planet. However, scientists have not yet been able to tell you exactly about the details of this process.