LONDON: There is life on Earth because a Mercury-like planet crashed into our world billions of years ago, which created the conditions required for life to flourish, such as the planet’s magnetic field, say researchers from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford.
The scientists wrote about their study in the academic journal Nature (citation below).
Scientists say that after analyzing the elements that make up the Earth’s mantle and core, a collision must have occurred a long time ago, which made our planet’s core hot.
Heat in the Earth’s core drives the movement of molten iron in the centre of the planet, which generates the magnetic shield protecting us all from harmful cosmic radiation. If that radiation were not deflected, it is doubtful that any kind of life (as we know it) would have formed.
Dr. Anke Wohlers and Prof. Bernard Wood point out that the Earth’s crust and mantle contain higher concentrations of neodymium and samarium – two rare-earth metals – than what has been observed in meteorites.
These different rare-earth metal ratios suggest that something else happened when the Earth was young, apart from the continual impacts by meteorites.
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