One of the hypotheses for the formation of the Moon is that A planet the size of Mars could collide with Earth at the dawn of the solar system. In addition to creating the Moon, the collision may have also caused the Earth to tilt, they give rise to the seasons we know today.
Collisions are expected to occur more frequently as a new planetary system forms. This is because objects are still being formed and different objects can eventually interfere in the same orbit. Something similar is expected to have happened with Earth and a planet called Theia.
For the first time, a group of astronomers was able observe the collision of two planets and the result that occursas explained in this article published in Nature. They noticed the formation of a structure that could explain why stars’ luminosity seems to fade out of nowhere.
How does a planetary system form?
Today, the most accepted hypothesis is nebula. According to this hypothesis, Unstable clouds of molecular hydrogen eventually collapse into spheres that rotate to form stars. Some of the surrounding gas also collapses to form planets.
Recently, ALMA managed to capture it images of disks in the process of planet formation around a star. The process is complex and there are still some unsolved questions to explain the training.
Solar system emerging from a cloud
According to the nebular hypothesis, the solar system emerged from a nebula. It is not yet known exactly what caused this gas cloud to collapse. Some research suggests that a supernova from a nearby star released enough energy to collapse the cloud.
In the region near the Sun, the rocky planets appeared: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, while the gas giants appeared in the outer region.
Part of the reason is that intense gravitational effect of the Sun makes the inside a bit more chaotic and unstable than the exterior. This is one of the reasons why giant planets could only form outside.
A chaotic world that inhabited Earth
It is estimated that tens and even hundreds of protoplanets formed in the solar system.. With a large number of protoplanets and the gravitational interaction of the Sun, it was common for them to collide to create larger objects.
This probably happened with the protoplanet that gave rise to Earth and a protoplanet called Theia. This collision probably gave rise to a cloud of dust, rock and gas that later created the moon.
Planetary system ASASSN-21qj
After the ASASSN observatory alerted them to a change in the brightness of the star ASASSN-21qj, the group turned their attention to it. The star’s light appeared to have dimmed, and they also found evidence that the star had brightened. in the infrared moments before it begins to decline.
This sudden change in brightness is unusual for main sequence stars and similar to the Sun, which caught the attention of researchers who They began to consider a hypothesis: two giant planets collided in front of the star.
Astronomers have observed for the first time the collision of two ice giant planets in a distant solar system, a process they believe planet Earth went through when it was only a few million years old, leading to the formation of our Moon.
️ Mark Garlick
https://t.co/hR4LHldSzQ pic.twitter.com/2ccVreHKEK— Cardiff University (@cardiffuni) October 13, 2023
The idea was that the collision between the two planets created the infrared spike we saw earlier and After imoact, a structure called synestheia was formed. To synesthesia It would be a doughnut-shaped structure formed by debris from the collision. Synesthesia would pass in front of the star, giving the impression that its brightness had decreased.
A possible explanation for what happened on Earth?
Observing a collision between two planets can give us clues about what happened in the history of our own planet. Some scientists hypothesize that a synestia-like structure was responsible for the formation of the Moon.
Furthermore, this discovery could explain the dimming of several stars. One of the newest was Betelgeuse, which darkened in 2021 and later it was found that the cause was a cloud of gas passing in front of the star.
The goal is to continue observing other moments of the system. The group proposes to use the James Webb Telescope to understand the system’s dynamics in the infrared. Observing what is happening now could tell us what happened to our planet billions of years ago.
