Giant chunks of the ancient planet Theia, which helped create the Moon, are floating inside the Earth

One popular scientific hypothesis suggests that billions of years ago, another planet crashed into our planet. It is called Theia and was comparable in size to Mars.

Here's What We Know

According to the hypothesis, as a result of the impact, part of the debris of the ancient planet was thrown into space and formed the Moon. The remaining pieces could not be found. New modelling suggests that they are floating in the Earth's mantle.

A few decades ago, it became known that there are two huge continents inside our planet. Each is thousands of kilometres long. Scientists began to call them Large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVP).

Researchers believe that the remnants of Theia plunged into the bowels of the Earth during the collision. Our planet was still molten at the time. Modelling shows that LLSVPsa are the remains of an ancient planet.

They managed to preserve the structure due to the relatively low temperature of the lower layer of the Earth's mantle. As a result, mixing did not occur and instead the remnants of the ancient planet managed to crystallise. Scientists will now look into finding out how their presence influenced the development of the Earth.

Source: Science Daily