New research suggests that Theia, the object whose collision with Earth is theorized to have caused the formation of the moon, came from closer to the sun. Artist’s impression of the collision between ...

The mystery of the Earth and Moon’s similarity Early models of the Moon’s formation predicted that the Moon should mostly consist of Theia’s material. But scientists noticed a puzzle: Earth and the ...

Apollo samples provide evidence: Researchers analyzed Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo missions and, for the first time, ...

Scientists have proposed a shocking new theory for the origin of the moon, and their calculations suggest Earth once had a secret world hiding right next door. Astronomers believe that the moon was ...

Roughly four and a half billion years ago the planet Theia slammed into Earth, destroying Theia, melting large fractions of Earth’s mantle and ejecting a huge debris disk that later formed the moon.

A quiet question has long hovered over lunar science. How did the Moon gain its make-up, and why does it resemble Earth so closely? A new study now offers a clearer view, suggesting the missing ...

Moon’s precursor planet, Theia, disappeared billions ago, leaving scientists no direct chemical evidence to support the hypothesis. Now a team of astromers in France, Germany and the United States ...

"The most convincing scenario is that most of the building blocks of Earth and Theia originated in the inner solar system. Earth and Theia are likely to have been neighbors." Over 4.5 billion years ...

About 4.5 billion years ago, a colossal impact between the young Earth and a mysterious planetary body called Theia changed everything—reshaping Earth, forming the Moon, and scattering clues across ...

"During the early solar system's game of cosmic billiards, Earth was struck by a neighbor,” said Dauphas. “It was a lucky shot. Without the moon's steadying influence on our planet's tilt, the climate ...

Earth may have a moon today because a nearby neighbor once crashed into us, a new analysis of Apollo samples and terrestrial ...