Enormous fragments from a Mars-sized planet that crashed into Earth billions of years ago could be embedded deep within our planet’s core, a new study suggests.
Qian Yuan, an Arizona State University graduate student presented the theory earlier this month at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Futurism reports.
According Live Science, a protoplanet known as Theia collided with Earth approximately 4.5 billion years ago, knocking a huge chunk of rock into space that would later become our moon.
Yuan’s theory suggests that portions of Theia possibly stuck around after the impact and became two continent-size blobs of hot rock that now rest in Earth’s mantle. Futurism reports that these two blobs are positioned underneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean and are thousands of miles wide.
“You could say that these are the biggest and largest meteorites if they are mostly Theia’s,” Yuan said (via HuffPost). “It’s very cool.”
According to Yuan’s theory, after Earth and Theia collided, lighter rocks were shot into space (eventually forming the moon) while heavier materials remained closer to Earth’s core, Live Science reports. Once the dust finally settled, those heavy materials turned into the enigmatic blobs.
“I think it’s completely viable until someone tells me it’s not,” Arizona State seismologist Edward Garnero said, according to HuffPost.
Yuan’s full presentation from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference is available to watch (via HuffPost):