Scientists from the University of California have uncovered the mystery of the birth of the moon. The satellite of the Earth was formed as a result of a nuclear explosion.
Experts from the USA, together with colleagues from France, managed to confirm the theory of the appearance of the moon as a result of the collision of the progenitor of the Earth and the planet Theia. At the time of the disaster, a nuclear explosion occurred. Light atoms of matter were thrown into space, and heavy ones later formed the Moon.
It was possible to prove the hypothesis thanks to research on the site of the Trinity project - the test of the first nuclear bomb in the world, which took place in 1945 at the Alamogordo test site in the United States.
As a result of the explosion, it was possible to reach a pressure (2000 atmospheres) and temperatures (1.3 thousand degrees Celsius), similar to those in the collision of Theia and the Earth. Analysis of rock samples after the explosion showed: the farther from the epicenter of the explosion, the more isotopes of zinc and light metal. Conversely, the maximum concentration of heavy metal isotopes was at the epicenter.
The results of this study were published in the scientific journal Science Advances.
Sofia Bessonova