Or that the mix of Earth and Theia in the moon is very non homogenous and they took most of their samples from the Earths part.
Actually, now that I think about it, wouldn't the result of the collision cause most of Earths contribution to be on the surface of the moon? If it was otherwise, then Earth would have had an ring much like Saturn at one point which then collected into whole to become the moon. That couldn't be true since we would have easily seen evidence on the moon. This theory of mine would mean that almost any samples taken from the moon would would be originally from Earth.
The giant impact theory predicts that Earth did, at one point, have a proto-ring of debris from the collision. That proto-ring slowly accreted into the moon.
I'm not sure what evidence we would expect to observe on the moon to indicate whether it accreted from a proto-ring or was captured intact - could you elaborate a little?
transphenomenal|14 years ago
Actually, now that I think about it, wouldn't the result of the collision cause most of Earths contribution to be on the surface of the moon? If it was otherwise, then Earth would have had an ring much like Saturn at one point which then collected into whole to become the moon. That couldn't be true since we would have easily seen evidence on the moon. This theory of mine would mean that almost any samples taken from the moon would would be originally from Earth.
jbri|14 years ago
I'm not sure what evidence we would expect to observe on the moon to indicate whether it accreted from a proto-ring or was captured intact - could you elaborate a little?
snowwrestler|14 years ago