Apollo brings shock tests emerged stars of the Moon – RTVE

RTVE.es / AGENCIES

Moon rocks brought back by Apollo astronauts ago over 40 years have the proof so far eluded science supuetamente how a planet the size of Mars collided with the Earth and led to the formation of the moon. Thus, this new research sheds new light on the origin of the Moon, endorsing the theory accepted by most scientists, the ‘Great Crash’.

German scientists who have carried out this work say that detected a slight chemical difference between Earth rocks and moon rocks . According to these researchers, more evidence to definitively confirm this issue for so long have sought to resolve will be needed: a different celestial body to Earth contributed to the formation of the Moon will make about 4.5 million years

<. p> The hypothesis of a giant impact between the Earth with another planet is widely accepted to explain the birth of the moon, but raised the problem that they have not found the expected differences between the isotopes of terrestrial and lunar samples. Now German researchers appear if any detected for the case of oxygen after analyzing moon rocks collected during the Apollo missions.

Moon Scientists emerged from a cloud of debris

believe that the Moon formed from a cloud of debris launched into space after the impact of a young Earth with a body the size of Mars called Theia .

The collision released so much energy that Theia melted and much of the envelope of our planet. Party Rocky Cloud be associated steamed back to Earth and the other would have solidified a short distance, leading to the satellite .

The isotopic ratios range from solar system objects, but is that in the case of the Earth and Moon are very similar, which conflicts with the theoretical models of the major collision. If this really happened, the moon would have formed from fragments of Theia, and therefore, one would expect that its composition was different from that of Earth.

So, l years scientists believed that the moon rocks could contain chemical fingerprints indicator of any body slammed into Earth, evidence so far elusive.

“We have developed a technique that ensures perfect separation “of oxygen isotopes from other gases, told Reuters Herwartz Daniel, a researcher at the University of Cologne in Germany. “The differences are small and difficult to detect, but they are there,” the lead author of a paper on the discovery, published this week in the journal Science

A satellite earth 50% -. Theia 50%

Most models estimate that the moon contains between 70% and 90% of material Theia, and the rest from ancient Earth.

However, some scientists believe that only is about 8% of the Moon Theia. Meanwhile, the results of the new study suggest something in between: “A mixture of 50% seems possible, but must be confirmed” , indicates Herwartza, although more work is needed to confirm this estimate “Now we can be reasonably sure that the great collision took place, and also gives us an idea of ​​the geochemistry of Theia, which seems was similar to that of type E chondrites (a kind of enstatite meteorite ). “

analyzed rocks are brought to Earth astronaut team of Apollo 11, Apollo 12 and Apollo 16 missions, which took place between 1969 and 1972 .

For the study, the team used its first lunar samples that had come to Earth via meteorites, but as they were ‘contaminated’ by the exchange of isotopes to ground water, decided to seek more pure.

These the NASA provided from rocks collected during the Apollo 11, 12 and 16 missions, and then were analyzed by a mass spectrometry technique. With the same material have been studied other isotopes, such as titanium, but have not been detected differences observed with oxygen.