The leading theory is that the Moon was created 4.5 billion years ago when a would-be planet the size of Mars smashed into the still-forming Earth. A video developed by the team simulating this process illustrates how clumps of Theia's mantle tens of kilometers wide swirled inside Earth. Over the years it accumulated into two separate blobs — officially called large low-velocity provinces (LLVPs) — that are now each larger than the Moon, Yuan said. Earth remains the only planet in the universe known to be capable of supporting life. Theia "left something in the Earth — and that played a role in Earth's subsequent 4.5 billion years of evolution," Yuan said.

Source: Manila Times November 02, 2023 22:05 UTC