Scientists Think They've Found 'Blobs' From Planet that Collided with Earth to Form the Moon (cnn.com) 25
"Slabs of material from an ancient extraterrestrial planet are hidden deep within the Earth," argues a new scientific theory (as described by CNN).
"Scientists widely agree that an ancient planet likely smashed into Earth as it was forming billions of years ago, spewing debris that coalesced into the moon that decorates our night sky today." But then whatever happened to that planet? No leftover fragments from a hypothetical planet "Theia" have ever been found in our solar system.
But the new theory "suggests that remnants of the ancient planet remain partially intact, buried beneath our feet." If the theory is correct, it would not only provide additional details to fill out the giant-impact hypothesis but also answer a lingering question for geophysicists. They were already aware that there are two massive, distinct blobs that are embedded deep within the Earth. The masses — called large low-velocity provinces, or LLVPs — were first detected in the 1980s. One lies beneath Africa and another below the Pacific Ocean.
The study's lead author (Dr. Qian Yuan, a geophysicist and postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology) first proposed the idea for a paper three times in 2021 — and was rejected each time. But "then he came across scientists who did just the type of research Yuan needed." Their work, which assigned a certain size to Theia and speed of impact in the modeling, suggested that the ancient planet's collision likely did not entirely melt Earth's mantle, allowing the remnants of Theia to cool and form solid structures instead of blending together in Earth's inner stew... If Theia were a certain size and consistency, and struck the Earth at a specific speed, the models showed it could, in fact, leave behind massive hunks of its guts within Earth's mantle and also spawn the debris that would go on to create our moon...
The study Yuan published this week includes coauthors from a variety of disciplines across a range of institutions, including Arizona State, Caltech, the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory and NASA's Ames Research Center.
"Scientists widely agree that an ancient planet likely smashed into Earth as it was forming billions of years ago, spewing debris that coalesced into the moon that decorates our night sky today." But then whatever happened to that planet? No leftover fragments from a hypothetical planet "Theia" have ever been found in our solar system.
But the new theory "suggests that remnants of the ancient planet remain partially intact, buried beneath our feet." If the theory is correct, it would not only provide additional details to fill out the giant-impact hypothesis but also answer a lingering question for geophysicists. They were already aware that there are two massive, distinct blobs that are embedded deep within the Earth. The masses — called large low-velocity provinces, or LLVPs — were first detected in the 1980s. One lies beneath Africa and another below the Pacific Ocean.
The study's lead author (Dr. Qian Yuan, a geophysicist and postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology) first proposed the idea for a paper three times in 2021 — and was rejected each time. But "then he came across scientists who did just the type of research Yuan needed." Their work, which assigned a certain size to Theia and speed of impact in the modeling, suggested that the ancient planet's collision likely did not entirely melt Earth's mantle, allowing the remnants of Theia to cool and form solid structures instead of blending together in Earth's inner stew... If Theia were a certain size and consistency, and struck the Earth at a specific speed, the models showed it could, in fact, leave behind massive hunks of its guts within Earth's mantle and also spawn the debris that would go on to create our moon...
The study Yuan published this week includes coauthors from a variety of disciplines across a range of institutions, including Arizona State, Caltech, the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory and NASA's Ames Research Center.
Fun idea. (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
It exists. You live on it.
Re: (Score:3)
Maybe not only us, that would explain what some calls "intraterestrials" /s
Re: (Score:2)
Gonna dig me a hole (Score:2)
...gonna dig me a hole... ...gonna put a nerd in it...
Given that the only real way to interrogate something that deep down is acoustically, how is this theory at all testable?
Re: (Score:2)
acoustically
Pretty much what seismometry is.
A pretty good movie, if you ignore science... (Score:2)
I've seen the solution for this in the movie "The Core". We just need a magical rock dissolving laser, a metal that gets stronger as you heat it more, and pressure suits that will let you stroll around in an active volcano's magma chamber look it's a pleasant sunny afternoon. :)
If you turn off the science part of your brain this really is a fun movie. My favorite quote:
planetary scale (Score:3)
"MongoDB is web scale"
from gaia import mantle,crust
class EarthModel(Planet):
name = StringField(max_length=50)
blob_file = BinaryField()
def index(request):
f = open('mantle.zip')
contents = f.read()
f.close()
record = EarthModel.objects.create(
name = "My Home",
blob_file = contents
)
result = EarthModel.objects.filter(name = "My Home")
result = SkinDetails.objects(name=gaia.crust)
blob_contents = result[0].blob_file
response = HttpResponse(blob_contents, content_type='application/zip')
response['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename="mantle.zip"'
return response
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks! I was wondering what kind of esoteric language he was using, I thought at first it might be some kind of pseudo-code :)
more ram (Score:2)
Don't know about you, I write a lot a of shitty code. I always make sure to setup a background process to download more RAM when the system is running low. This way when my process is about to run about of RAM, because you know mantle.zip is pretty fucking big, the system downloads more RAM just in time.
https://downloadmoreram.com/ [downloadmoreram.com]
Think they've found it? (Score:2)
How can they last? (Score:2)
I thought most the Earth is goo-like such that it mixes over time, especially since the middle rotates at a slightly different speed than the outer layer. It seems far fetch that blobs like that could remain mostly intact over billions of years.
Re: (Score:1)
They haven't proven they are from the moon-forming collision, only shown it a reasonable hypothesis. There could be other causes of blobs, like other more recent asteroids, or large chunks of the outer layer breaking off and drifting inward.
By the way, I have a typo "far fetch" that should be "far fetched".
Re: (Score:1)
I suppose you're still working on them?
While we're waiting, why not show us your old paper explaining why they can't last mostly intact for a billion years. Surely you must have some basis for your skepticism. Why is it far fetched?
Re: (Score:1)
Why is a paper needed? You are inventing funny rules. Few are claiming the blobs are nearly certain to be remnants of the moon-formation collision. Speculation is merely speculation. Counter speculation is merely counter speculation.
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Take your neckbeard pill.
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The earth is flat, we know that already.
The only question is: why is the mantle not in the cupboard?
Tides of Fire (Score:2)
I literally finished reading that book last night, and it’s entire premise (while fantastical science fiction) is based on this paper.
It’s an ok book, not high literature by any means, but a fairly well paced action adventure science-ish fiction.