Around 4.5 billion years ago, a planet called Theia is thought to have smashed into newborn Earth. The messy collision kicked up debris, which probably formed our nighttime companion, the moon. While ...

"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 ...

Around 4.5 billion years ago a giant object around the size of Mars crashed into the proto-planet Earth, called Theia. This ...

Apollo samples provide evidence: Researchers analyzed Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo missions and, for the first time, used their iron isotope ratios to trace where Theia originally formed.

Scientists have long believed that the Moon was formed by a massive object crashing into the Earth. But what was that thing ...

About 4.6 billion years ago, the Solar System formed from a cloud of dust and gas collapsing in on itself due to gravity. The Sun, planets, and eventually Earth formed out of the cloud. But when did ...

Earth is so far the only known planet on which life exists—with liquid water and a stable atmosphere. However, the conditions were not conducive to life when it formed. The gas-dust cloud from which ...

One of the oldest unsolved riddles in planetary science concerns the origin of the moon. Over a century ago, George Darwin ...

Over 4.6 billion years ago, Earth took shape from a spinning cloud of dust and gas surrounding the young sun. Tiny particles within this cloud collided and clumped together, driven by gravity and ...

Fresh evidence suggests early Earth wasn’t locked under a rigid stagnant lid but was already experiencing intense subduction.