
Cosmic Collision: Earth May Have Collided with Mercury Sized Planet in the Past
HOUSTON — Research by Rice University Earth scientists suggests that virtually all of Earth’s life-giving carbon could have come from a collision about 4.4 billion years ago between Earth and an embryonic planet similar to Mercury. In a new study this week in Nature Geoscience, Rice petrologist Rajdeep Dasgupta and colleagues offer a new answer to a long-debated geological question: … Continue reading

Earth is actually two planets, scientists conclude
Our home planet is actually two planets, scientists have said. Or at least, it’s made up of two planets. Edward Young and his team at the University of California said the orthodox belief on the origins of Earth and the Moon – that a smaller planet, Theia, grazed the Earth and send a chunk into Earth’s orbit – was false. … Continue reading