A new study by scientists has shown that Earth and Mars most likely originated from the collision of giant stones the size of the moon, and not from objects that were attracted to each other by electrostatic charge. They talked about their findings in the journal Science Advances.
According to previous research, there are two main models for the formation of rocky planets like Earth. The classical model assumes that particles of matter were attracted to each other, forming rocks the size of the Moon or Mars, which scientists call “planetary embryos.” Then these formations regularly collided with each other inside the solar system, gradually collecting into full-sized worlds. A later concept suggests that small stones came from outside the solar system and, while drifting towards the Sun, formed rocky planets.
To find out which model is best suited to explain the formation of our planet, scientists analyzed about 22 grams of material from 17 meteorites that arrived from Mars. These fragments were literally squeezed out of the Red Planet as a result of the collision of ancient asteroids and then hit the Earth. The researchers studied the composition of the Martian samples, compared the abundances of isotopes of titanium, zirconium and molybdenum with samples of various groups of meteorites from the inner and outer solar systems.
As a result, it turned out that terrestrial and Martian rocks are similar to meteorites from the inner solar system, and only about 4% of the composition is similar to material from the outer solar system. Thus, the conflicting interpretations of previous studies have finally been resolved.
“Only a few percent of the building blocks of these two planets originated outside the orbit of Jupiter. Therefore, we have an answer to the fundamental question of what the earth is made of, and this allows [нам] to answer an even more fundamental question of how the Earth was formed, “said lead author Christoph Burkhardt.
The new study also suggests that both Earth and Mars likely contained material from a group of cosmic rocks that are currently unknown to science. According to Burckhardt, their origin must be sought from the Earth’s orbit towards the Sun.
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