Early Earth Took a Heavy Beating After the Moon Was Formed

[Judi Lynn]

By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor | December 6, 2017 06:37pm ET

Earth may have been bruised by the impact of more than one moon-size object early in its life.

New simulations suggest that much of the material that crashed into our young planet may have been swallowed up by Earth's core or ricocheted back into space, requiring more collisions to leave the elemental signatures scientists see in the crust today.

The young solar system was a violent place. Planetesimals, the massive objects that didn't quite manage to grow into planets, wound up destroying themselves as they crashed into other objects during a period known as late accretion. These collisions left traces of highly siderophile elements — metals have an affinity for iron, such as gold, platinum and iridium— within our planet's mantle. [How the Moon Formed: 5 Wild Theories]

By measuring how much of these metals was mixed into the mantle, scientists estimated that about half a percent of the Earth's present mass came from colliding planetesimals. But these estimates assumed that the mantle held onto all of the highly siderophile elements.

More:
https://www.space.com/39002-earth-heavy-beating-after-moon-formation.html?utm_source=sdc-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20171207-sdc

[PJMcK]

1. Great article!

I love science.

Thanks for the post, Judi Lynn!