Fabulous graphics here! Watch this. See a hypothesized ancient planet in the early Solar System which, according to the giant-impact hypothesis, collided with the early Earth around 4.5 billion years ago, with some of the resulting ejected debris coalescing to form the Moon.
NASA JPL discovers Earth is at least two planetary bodies.
— Brian Roemmele (@BrianRoemmele) May 7, 2024
“Theia” impact planet ~4.5 billion years ago and buried under Africa and the Pacific Ocean forming the moon in an epic,
pic.twitter.com/WPhLxqXX47
Was the moon formed in mere hours?
Billions of years ago, a version of our Earth that looks very different than the one we live on today was hit by an object about the size of Mars, called Theia – and out of that collision the Moon was formed. How exactly that formation occurred is a scientific puzzle researchers have studied for decades, without a conclusive answer.
As infant planets, Earth and Venus were almost twins, but today they are incredibly different worlds. What events led to their divergence and the development of radically different environments?