The Moon Used To Be An Alien Planet. Sort Of

Traces Of Alien Planet Found On Moon

Scientists have found what they believe is conclusive evidence that the Moon is in fact 50 per cent alien material, proving that its creation was the result of a planet colliding with the Earth.

A report published in the journal Science suggests that billions of years ago a planet called Theia collided with a young Earth, shattering and eventually forming the Moon.

The problem with proving it was that theoretically if the Moon had indeed been the result of a collision then most of it should be made up of the doomed planet Theia.

Annoyingly that wasn't what they found, instead after analysing the Apollo lunar rock samples they found very few differences between the Moon and the Earth.

That didn't deter researchers in Germany however. Having just upgraded their mass spectrometer they decided to try it out using lunar samples.

The mass spectrometer was able to read the samples at a much higher magnitude of accuracy than ever before and what they found was that the samples on the Moon contained a completely different isotope of Oxygen.

Lead researcher Dr Daniel Herwartz, from the University of Goettingen spoke to BBC News about the discovery:

"It was getting to the stage where some people were suggesting that the collision had not taken place, but we have now discovered small differences between the Earth and the Moon. This confirms the giant impact hypothesis."

Despite Dr Herwartz's confidence, BBC News reports that other scientists are asking the public to remain skeptical for the moment with Dr Dr Mahesh Anand from The Open University asking for caution.

"We have to be cautious about representativeness of these rocks of the entire Moon, and so further analysis of a variety of lunar rocks is required for further confirmation,"

Close

What's Hot