Did part of 'lost' Earth survive moon's birth?

• Autores: Marcus Woo
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2973, 2014, pág. 13
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • A big piece of early Earth may have resisted the apocalyptic melting caused by the impact that spawned the moon. Sujoy Mukhopadhyay at Harvard University and his team analyzed samples of mantle taken from sites around the globe. They found that the ratio of helium-3 to neon-22 is much higher in the shallow part of the mantle than in the deeper part. They also saw differences in the ratio of xenon-129 to xenon-130 in the layers. The team argues that the energy of the impact was not evenly distributed, allowing a rocky part of the planet far from the collision to survive. Over time, that rock spread out and formed its own layer within the mantle.