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Collision With Earth's "Little Sister" Created the Moon

Posted by samzenpus on from the all-that's-left dept.

astroengine writes The primordial planet believed to have smashed into baby Earth, creating a cloud of debris that eventually formed into the moon, was chemically a near-match to Earth, a new study shows. The finding, reported in this week's Nature, helps resolve a long-standing puzzle about why Earth and the moon are nearly twins in terms of composition. Computer models show that most of the material that formed the moon would have come from the shattered impactor, a planetary body referred to as Theia, which should have a slightly different isotopic makeup than Earth.

2 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. LittleSister collisions by Mal-2 · · Score: 1, Funny

    Collisions with someone's little sister -- a series of carefully controlled and mutually pleasurable collisions -- often produce new bodies. Why should planet-fuckers be any different?

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    How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
  2. Ghia's little sister by JWSmythe · · Score: 3, Funny

    So Gaia banged her little sister and made the moon? I assume rule 34 has already been satisfied for this, right?

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    Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.