The theory that our Earth’s satellite, the Moon, is actually a piece that broke off from the Earth as a result of a gigantic collision, is one of the most widely accepted theories about the formation of the Moon. To date, many discoveries have been made that support this theory. But a recent discovery was almost the biggest proof of the theory.
Patrizia Will of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology came across something surprising in the Moon rocks NASA collected from Antarctica during her doctoral research. Patrizia detected traces of helium and neon in the rocks. These two gases found in the six moonstones indicated that the Moon was part of the Earth.
So how did this Moonstone contain gas?
Moonstones are composed of volcanic rocks called basalt, which are formed when magma ejects from the moon and then cools rapidly. This cooling process allowed ‘lunar glass’ particles to form within samples that retained the chemical signatures of the Sun’s gases. After basalt was formed, this glass was surrounded by layers of rock that protected it. As a result, the gas got trapped inside.
The theory that the Moon was formed by the fragments of the Earth as a result of a giant collision was supported by this study. According to one version of this theory, Earth collided with a ‘protoplanet’ called Theia 4.5 billion years ago, 60 million years after its formation. One of the discoveries that supported this theory was the discovery that the Moon’s mantle rocks have a composition similar to that on Earth.
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