The Moon Stole Something From Deep Inside Earth Eons Ago, and Scientists Can Prove It

In the solar system, Earth and the Moon are unique. The only planet with a single moon is Earth. Life on Earth may not have arisen without the Moon.

The Moon is a quarter the size of Earth and scientists are interested in where it came from.

A pair of rocks that are shaped like potatoes are captured asteroids.

The origin of the Moon is thought to have been caused by a huge spray of debris from the collision of Earth and Theia 4.5 billion years ago. The theory is that the debris coalesced into a satellite.

New evidence shows that violent birth.

The noble gasses found in lunar meteorites are similar to those found in the solar wind. The two bodies were one long ago, and it is possible that those gasses came from Earth.

For the first time, solar gasses were found in basaltic materials from the Moon that were unrelated to the lunar surface.

It is difficult to study the composition of the moon. We haven't been there in over 40 years.

meteorites are thrown in our direction when something big slams into the surface of the moon

There are hundreds of lunar meteorites that have been found around the world.

Will and her colleagues studied the subjects of a study. The basalt from a volcanic plain on the Moon is the type of rock that these fragments are made of.

This rock was formed when the interior of the Moon was covered by more basalt and cooled quickly. Particles of volcanic glass formed when the basalt cooled.

The impact was large enough to cause lunar rocks to fly to Earth. It would have to be a large impact deep into the moon's surface to reach the rock that has not been seen before.

The lunaites were studied using a noble gas mass spectrometer. The only instrument in the world that can make their detection is this one.

The team found that the glass particles in the basalt retained the same signatures as time capsule. The signatures were the same as the solar wind, but were found to be more abundant than expected.

The gasses had to have come from somewhere else because the basalt had not been exposed to the sun.

The team found that the neon's isotope ratios were very similar to those of neon in Earth's mantle, deep upwellings of hot molten that sample of material deep inside the planet. The researchers think that the gasses came from Earth.

The discovery may prompt renewed interest in the study of noble gasses in meteorites and a closer look at what else may be locked up in other lunar rocks.

While noble gasses are not necessary for life, it would be interesting to know how they survived the violent formation of the Moon.

Knowledge about how volatile elements can survive planet formation in our solar system and beyond could be used to create new models.

The research was published in a journal.