The giant impact which formed the moon may have also blown off the earth’s atmosphere, scientists, including one of Indian-origin, have proposed.
The giant impact which formed the moon may have also blown off the earth’s atmosphere, scientists, including one of Indian-origin, have proposed. Moon came into existence after several planet-size bodies smashed into the early earth one after the other, researchers said. Scientists, until now, believed it was unlikely that the early earth could lose its atmosphere because of a giant moon-forming impact. New research argues that this may have been possible, Space.com reported. The study is based on recent research showing that at its infancy earth had magma oceans and was spinning so rapidly that a day was only two or three hours long. “Part of the earth remembers its infancy, and it’s giving us clues to the stages of growth of the earth,” said planetary scientist Sarah Stewart, a professor at Harvard University. The team based the research on two recent studies: One argues that the moon is actually a giant merger of bits and pieces of our earth, partially destroyed by a catastrophic collision with a space body 4.5 billion years ago. The earth had a two or three-hour day back then and the impact made it throw off enough material to coalesce into what became our satellite, making it the earth’s geochemical twin, Sarah said.
