Why is the Moon so similar to Earth? ⚡ экспресс
The giant-impact hypothesis predicts that over 40% of the material in the circumterrestrial debris disk—from which the Moon formed—came from the impactor Theia. This contradicts the terrestrial isotopic signature of lunar rocks, known as the lunar isotopic crisis. Assuming Theia’s mantle was enriched in iron relative to proto-Earth’s mantle, it is shown that after a stratified lunar magma ocean formed, its solidification led to an upper solid layer made of proto-Earth material and a lower one from Theia’s mantle. Consequently, the observed near-terrestrial isotopic composition of the lunar surface is not an anomaly but a natural consequence of this layering. The proposed theory offers a natural resolution to the lunar isotopic crisis.
The collision that birthed the Moon has long been puzzling: by all accounts, the cloud of cosmic dust after the impact was mostly Theia material. Yet when scientists read the chemical fingerprints of lunar rocks, they turned out nearly indistinguishable from Earth’s. The Moon flashes an Earth passport, but its suitcase is packed with alien stuff.
The answer lies in hidden layering. If Theia was richer in iron, its material was denser. The newborn Moon was a ball of molten rock. As it cooled, heavy Theian fragments sank, while lighter Earth-like ones floated up and solidified into crust. So the top layer inherited Earth’s composition, while the “filling” stayed foreign. If we could drill through the Moon, beyond the familiar crust we’d hit a layer of material from a vanished planet.
Similar processes likely occurred on other bodies in the galaxy, hiding the history of cosmic catastrophes deep inside.
🎯 If astronauts drilled deep enough into the Moon, they’d hit a layer with a completely alien chemistry — a real hello from vanished Theia.
🎬 Like in Jules Verne’s ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth,’ the Moon might harbor another world inside — not fictional, but a real shard of a vanished planet.