When Earth "Ate" A Planet

Watch our next episode two weeks early right now on PBS.org! to.pbs.org/Eon...
Or on the PBS App: to.pbs.org/PBS...
Where did our unique moon come from? It turns out that lunar rocks brought back by Apollo astronauts are a clue, pointing to the origin of our closest cosmic companion, an origin even stranger than you might imagine…
Find out more about our Prehistoric Elephants here: complexly.info...
*****
PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to to.pbs.org/Dona...
*****
Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.
Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:
Randall George, Morgan, Kevin Lacson, Marco Narajos, Collin Dutrow, Pope John XII, Aaditya Mehta, AllPizzasArePersonal, John H. Austin, Jr., Alex Hackman, Stephen Patterson, Odditeas , Karen Farrell, Jason Rostoker, Jonathan Rust, Mary Tevington, Bart & Elke van Iersel - De Jong, Irene Wood, Derek Helling, Mark Talbott-Williams, Nomi Alchin, Duane Westhoff, Hillary Ryde-Collins, Yu Mei, Albert Folsom, Heathe Kyle Yeakley, Dan Caffee, Nick Ryhajlo, Jeff Graham
If you'd like to support the channel, head over to / eons and pledge for some cool rewards!
Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook - / eonsshow
Twitter - / eonsshow
Instagram - / eonsshow
#Eons
References:
docs.google.co...

[@eons]

If you're sad the episode is over, don't worry! You can watch our next episode before it comes to KZbin right now over on PBS! Watch on PBS.org: to.pbs.org/EonsOnPBS Or download the PBS App: to.pbs.org/PBSAppEons

[@smartass013]

There are rocks from mars on earth Rocks earth on the moon proves nothing

[@Skroopy]

I wish I could be an intangible observer and witness this event. It would be epic to see.

[@zwiebeldogs]

ABSOLUTELY! I wish I could travel through time as an intangible observer to see everything that ever happened at every level and speed I choose to observe it at. The formation of planets, the first form of life, the first fish on land, the first use of fire, the discovery of penicillin, the death of the last member of extinct animals, the nuclear bomb impacts etc etc. If I had to give up my life, which I do enjoy, and never communicate with anything ever again, I would. I'd agree in a heartbeat

[@haroldf3385]

35 hours! There are few celestial events I wanna see. Planets colliding is number 1

[@Tahoza]

Yeah I'd sit down and watch that straight.

[@PhysicsPolice]

Imagine throwing a real-time watch party of this simulation...

[@ojassarup258]

The moon is actually a secret Decepticon base!

[@theprimo100]

You saw that documentary too?

[@kellydalstok8900]

Where does the moon come from? Well, when a mummy planet and a daddy planet love each other very much …

[@DeepeningTheListening]

In this case it was two mummys, Gaia and Theia. Apparently that works for moons. 😄

[@wilhelminawill9495]

Two worlds collided, and they could never, tear us apart! 😊

[@texasyojimbo]

This explanation banned in Tennessee.

[@aethproxima421]

Oversimplifying things eh?

[@Merrinen]

- love each other very much + find each other very attractive

[@veggieboyultimate]

Ooh, a new narrator?

[@amogusenjoyer]

I think it's a scishow narrator but I'm not sure. I haven't watched that channel for years!

[@BobbyHill26]

As soon as it was mentioned that the earth and moon have very similar isotopic ratios this theory is what came to my mind. It just makes sense that a collision would rip the mantles of both bodies apart but leave the more dense and gravitationally bound core more or less intact. And that the exterior of the smaller body would be mostly buried in the larger body, while the exterior of the larger body would make up the majority of the debris, meaning once all the dust settles the two bodies would have similar exteriors. Though I do understand that “it just makes the most sense” isn’t exactly something you can get published in a journal, and when the early simulations all contradict your intuition, you have to follow the data and not what you think is right

[@nebulan]

Oh, this is the first time we've seen Gabriel in a full-length video, right? Yay! 🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕

[@jeffreybower]

He's got a very relaxing voice. I approve!

[@Maelemonium]

He will now be known as the moon man! For his first full video being about the moon 🌙

[@nyeti7759]

New presenter just dropped! 😃

[@KoneSkirata]

I love videos about the moon, and this one had it all concerning its creation, even the epic 2022 simulation and Theia's potential mantle pieces beneath earth's surface, thank you. I would love to see a similar video sometime - "Our moon - the full story", that covers not only the moon's origin, but all the implications that come from its anomalic existence - why such large moons are rare, what impact that could have had on earth's composition, how the moon might be related to events on earth like the tide, or even the origin of life itself. Where Theia might've come from - did it form in Sol's protoplanetary disc, or was it a rogue planet, or might it have even been an early collision with another star system which also explains some of the other bodie's retrograde movement? Could also be a cool crossover episode between your PBS colleagues like PBS Spacetime. I believe that our moon is the key to many odd and outstanding properties of earth. It could be the thing that truly sets us apart and makes earth "special", and might even be the solution to the famous Fermi Paradox.

[@FelixstoweFoamForge]

Planets crashing into each other? What is this, a game of intergalactic bar-billiards? I hope it scored high!

[@TrungTran-yg3uv]

just another day in a FF villain's life (I'm looking at you Endsinger)

[@oysteinsoreide4323]

actually neither were a planet at the time as both had not cleared their orbit of other large objects. But maybe earth was a planet after the impact.

[@kettusnuhveli]

“More similar to its parent planet than any other moon in our solar system” Was gonna mention Pluto and Charon but then I remembered that Pluto hasn’t been a planet in ages now… also aren’t they both smaller than the moon (and should probably be thought of more as a binary system)?

[@1Kapuchu100]

It will be a cold day in hell before I stop calling Pluto a planet.

[@Chrismas815]

​@@1Kapuchu100 you can be wrong if you want

[@ellie.starsky]

yeah they're more like a binary system. charon isn't orbiting pluto, they're kind of orbiting each other

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

The Earth and Moon are barely not considered a binary planet

[@ellie.starsky]

@@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim barely, but still not really there, that's exactly what makes them outliers among known planet-satellite systems

[@texasyojimbo]

Nice moon. Where did you get it? The moon store?

[@pollytiks3885]

A celestial stork maybe? 😂

[@I.amthatrealJuan]

I've read that those large low velocity provinces actually affect the surface geologic activity of the Earth by inducing volcanic hotspots, so that giant impact is still having a direct effect on our planet today.

[@jammysmears4077]

“More similar to its parent planet than any other moon in our solar system” - Pluto and Charon look up from their drinks, frown, and look back down again.

[@norarivkis2513]

Parent *planet* being the operative term. (I think Pluto should still be a planet too, but I reluctantly accept that science instructors won't be calling it one until we can get it reclassified again.)

[@TheRealWormbo]

Those two are arguable a double dwarf planet with a bunch of shared moons, considering how far outside of Pluto their shared center of gravity is.

[@Suchomimus65]

So cool! That LLVP hypothesis is really exciting

[@benderisgreat95able]

How significant would this impact be to fueling billions of years of geologic activity, magmatic cycles, and magnetic fields?

[@jul1440]

Pretty significant. Theia also might have delivered more uranium to the Earth further to help fuel the core.

[@Yunaria]

Omg yaaasss Earth ATE 💅✨ AND LEFT NO CRUMBS ✊💃

[@mlpreiss]

I was going to ask about the LLVPs, but you beat me to it in your thorough treatment of the subject. Good work.

[@jv_likes_plants]

"We love you PBS Eons" we all say in unison

[@LegendOfRian]

Is this Gabriel's first full episode? Great start!

[@freedomfirst5557]

That would have been some show to see.

[@snowshinobi]

I have never thought about the moon's formation as planet cannibalism before ... I love this

[@MantraHerbInchSin]

Finally a new one! I will save this for tonight

[@alcozar5905]

Great video, the only video that does a moon size comparison.

[@worldwolf9527]

It would have been spectacular to see, especially with it taking only 35 hours.

[@paleoph6168]

Good to see Gabriel Santos!

[@TheSlazzer]

I've seen models of what Earth's iron core likely looks like - mostly like a spherical shape - but there are odd, almost string or "ear"-like parts around it. Looking at the animation at 08:07, I wonder if those odd shapes may be remnants of the "moon-blob" that fell back to earth.

[@tyler___3]

Amazing episode per usual

[@laurachapple6795]

New guy is gonna fit right in. He already sounds tired of the puns.

[@alcidesfy]

"Ate" is right. In our face at cosmic speed.

[@CrimsonCateye]

I'm not a psysicist, so forgive my ignorance, but if two planets formed a similar distance from the sun at the same time, would their building blocks not be extremely similar? And if so, would that not explain why the moon has such similar compounds as earth, even if it formed from another proto-planet?

[@embreis2257]

makes sense. however, if it would work that way why are rocks from Mars so different from both Earth and the moon?

[@EUPassionStorm]

So the thing about planet formation and stars, is that you need to remember the environment planets form in. Its a hot soup of particles and gas and lumps of material, constantly bombarded by the electromagnetic waves of the Sun in the center. The majority of that matter itself came from the star that either originally went into a nova nearby and reformed a star, or was made in a stellar nebula with plenty of stars nearby to spew heavier elements in the direction of our formation area. Effectively this means that even after millions of years of condensing, theres plenty of hotspots of materials within the protoplanetary disk, and that can cause planets that form at the exact same distance but say mostly opposite sides, to have different makeups. Remember how big planets are, and how much material actually makes one up. If the distribution looks like a child tried to evenly split playdoh, it wont make similar enough planets because ratios are harder to get similar the more actual stuff youre comparing. 2:1 is pretty easy with only 50 objects, but when its 10 billion billion billion, theres a lot of room for the ratios to get very off from each other. Not a degree'd person or anything, just very into science overall so the details could be off but thats pretty much the gist of it.

[@TheRealJoannasaurus]

This is called the accretion hypothesis. It was one of several other hypotheses that have been proposed over the years - but was one that didn’t match other observations about the Earth-Moon system (specifically the fact that it has such a small iron core and the angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system)

[@joaopedrodacostasouza2383]

Great content as always !

[@jasonscottjenkins]

When you are ready know the answer to the question but watch anyway

[@quirkygreece]

What shape would the Earth be if there was no water? Maybe that would give a clue where such an impact might have taken place?

[@lonestarr1490]

I suggest you watch the simulation again. The question of "where", in regard to a place on Earth's surface, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It cannot be compared to the impact of an asteroid, leaving a crater in the crust. After this impact, the whole planet was reduced to a blob of boiling soup. It probably took millions of years to cool down and even form a proper crust again.

[@TheNinjaKiwi1]

Wow! Early to the party! Welcome new host guy!

[@christopheryoung2874]

I never heard this before thx

[@popcorn485]

Life is where it is today because of eons of stable geology and environment. Crazy that such a cataclysmic event as this is part of our planet’s history. Crazier that life may never have evolved if this hadn’t happened!

[@dprofielenk1940]

Great video!

[@TerenceClark]

I was in college when All Your Base hit. The campus was suddenly covered with signs and sidewalk chalk referencing it. It was way, way more pervasive than memes get today

[@lonestarr1490]

Did you watch PBS Eons and Vlogbrothers in two different tabs in the same browser by any chance? Because it seems to me you might have written your comment in the wrong one.

[@rwarren58]

I see you’re selling a wooly mammoth. May I assume it’s life sized? The Thea hypothesis checks all the boxes for me.

[@eybaza6018]

Of course it's not life-sized. That would be one big hunk of plastic

[@StayVCA98]

Yes when the Earth also heard ATE Album by Stray Kids it became stronger too aa it was able to eat a planet as said!! 🥹

[@oobrocks]

Most people should already know this

[@primrosevale1995]

Nobody: The Earth in this video: “I just ate a proto-planet and I’m gonna have a moon!! Greatest moment of my life!!”

[@LeoDomitrix]

Even my non-science-inclined Hubby lvoed this! Thank you!

[@MrEkirt]

PBS EONS DROPPED LETS GOOOO LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!

[@nachofwg]

I’ve been listening to Tom Scott’s show Lateral a ton the last few days, and the PBS plug at 11:07 was set up almost perfectly for a question on the show :p

[@TomsWhip]

Good job new guy 👊

[@shashi10ka]

0.30 Mars have moon too. (Phobos and Deimos). You made a factually incorrect statement that moons are found only beyond asteroid belt

[@craftpaint1644]

Makes sense to me.

[@ДмитрийМакаров-я7м]

Release Thea from the Earth prison!

[@FaeQueenCory]

$5 says Theia winged Mars before its direct hit on Earth and that's what knocked off that chunk off Mars.

[@derekhofstetler3998]

Is this what eating a planet is like? Damn I want to eat some now.

[@SC1ENCEP1E]

An ad for the mammoth, an ad for the PBS app AND a patreon plug. Complexly you are spoiling us!

[@astrocoastalprocessor]

😂😊

[@nkanyezihlatshwayo3601]

New host, yay 🙌🏾 🥳

[@ariochiv]

But... Theia would have formed in the same orbit as Earth on the other side of the Sun. Wouldn't the isotopic composition of the proplyd be the same at the same radius?

[@robsquared2]

We should all be happy the earth got mooned.

[@ApollonDriver]

I like this new presenter!

[@fios4528]

I mean technically it was still Theia at the time

[@Superwelder0]

There is a nonzero chance someone in less than 10 years will watch this video on the moon. An ape curious about the rock upon which they stand. History not exactly repeating but rhyming indeed.

[@Shirebaggins.]

Eons can make a video about the history of viruses in Europe like the rabies virus

[@ekaramdani6390]

I.... thought this was PBS Spacetime for a moment XD

[@Nick-qy3hu]

There are a lot of people who think the Earth/Moon combination should be considered a binary planet I can't disagree. 🙂

[@Chrismas815]

6:54 idk your model looks pretty cool

[@r1b3y38]

The moon is also exactly the right size to produce the total eclipses we all love to see, completely by coincidence. Boggles the mind.

[@audrei679]

twenty seconds since it was psted holy HELL I've never been so quick

[@wilsi473]

Hot & steamy new Eons drop

[@RickrollFoot]

real

[@errolholmes3838]

Where is Thea? If it hit and kept going

[@AndrewTBP]

You are standing on it.

[@adalbertred]

Is it possible that Theia was formed in the same orbit with Earth, feeding from the same material?

[@kalmtraveler]

if it was in the same orbit, how would it have ended up changing to be orbiting around our planet and slowly spiraling away from us?

[@adalbertred]

@@kalmtraveler the orbital speed depends on mass. Also, as I understand, (1) in the same region of the protoplanetary disk can appear several protoplanets which - eventually - merge into a bigger one, and (2) Theia is inserted in Earth (and probably Moon) - it didn’t just go further.

[@jul1440]

Possible but not probable. Orbits are rarely round, and Theia may have been swinging around like a comet. Jupiter probably had something to do with that. The ultimate fate of most protoplanets was to enter the sun's atmosphere or to be flung into interstellar space. What we have is just what's left.

[@MerkDolf]

🎉 😄 👍 👌

[@BrunoGabrielAraujoLebtag-p8v]

Steve!!!

[@Stejers]

There was this ball of melten rock wich was hit by another ball of melten rock wich kinda made a mess that is now the moon

[@donnierussellii4659]

Lots of myths about the Moon cast it in an evil light. People just couldn't stop worrying about it up there. We're still trying to figure it out, but can be ever be certain how it got there?

[@astrocoastalprocessor]

is there any 'evil moon' literature that you would recommend for interested parties?

[@donnierussellii4659]

@@astrocoastalprocessor There may be books about this subject in particular, but I'm not aware of any. From a lot of reading, though, it turns up often. I guess I should qualify that the stories are not so much about the moon being itself being evil, but that it influences people in negative ways or reflects evil deeds. Examples are Cain being the "man in the moon", "lunacy", the horns of the crescent being associated with demons, etc.

[@SathReacts]

Switch to 1.25x speed for new hosts. Anywhere! 😉

[@alexcronvich8519]

And when Theia it did impact The silver cord did snap as well Leaving the soul to sail on A journey beyond which we dwell

[@thunderflare59]

We were Galactus all along.

[@seankeef9838]

Bad day to give up drinking milk!

[@vinniepeterss]

top

[@estebanfuentes8356]

Umm...space?

[@fabycho6791]

That simulation makes me incredibly uncomfortable 😳

[@carefree4271]

PBS EONS you're the reason I'm now an atheist 😂

[@U.Odyssey]

That moon came from the wizard.

[@sohopedeco]

Isn't the new host going to introduce himself? I'm curious

[@AndrewTBP]

He did that in a livestream a while ago. Read the Description

[@Xnaut314]

I know these videos are planned and developed long before they are actually published, but it's unfortunate that this was timed right when the planetary collision hypothesis is being genuinely challenged. Some recent papers argue against the existence of Thea and say the rocks of the Earth and moon are too similar to each other in composition to originate from different celestial bodies and budded off during Earth's early development, so the debate rages on.

[@Nick-qy3hu]

I don't like how people call the ball of matter that thea crashed into, " Earth ". It wasn't really earth until thea and that bigger ball of matter merged. I would say proto earth at best but I think it needs a new name. 🙂

[@jelleludolf]

ADS EVERYWHERE AHHHHH WHAT THE SHUT NOW INTERNET, STOP

[@jul1440]

Is your AdBlock busted?

[@frtzkng]

damn blake looks different today

[@robertjohnson9187]

I thought the origin of the moon was estabished in The Fifth Element?!

[@RickrollFoot]

11 minutes ago ayyy im early chat

[@glockenrein]

I’m sorry but this one made me giggle. The presenter is exaggerating just a little with the way he talks. 😂

[@oniondip_420]

I guess it was Gaia and not Ouranos who was into vore

[@Bowie_E]

What happened to Steve? 😔

[@bri1085]

Investing in the 1st minute

[@drstone3418]

Doesn't explain moon's hallowness

You've seen to many dumb films.

[@astrocoastalprocessor]

🌜🛐🛐🛐

[@jermsmason2082]

Actually, recent theory shows that the moon being isotopically identical to Earth is strong evidence that a planet did not collide with earth.

[@sydhenderson6753]

Yeah, we have conflicting theories. I was thinking if the material expelled contained a lot of Theia and it fell back to Earth then the Earth's crust's isotopic ratios would have changed despite much of Theia winding up in the mantle.

[@drstone3418]

Maybe earth had multiple moons that colided

[@bekirarslan1443]

No its not possible, if we wood have many moones, enough Stadius shot, that multiple moons wood not be big as over moon is today, by the way with every colid we wood lose 1/8 of the mass. Its make in math no sense

[@Chrismas815]

We probably did at some point during the 35 hrs proto earth/Thea collision

[@jul1440]

Sure, that was how Protoearth formed. That was _before_ Theia collided though.

[@ludoviclemaignen9432]

I have to say I much prefer when PBS eons deals with geology, paleontology and prehistoric animals rather than moving into PBS space time territory especially when they covered this topic about a year ago

[@jasonGamesMaster]

I mean, technically this is geology

[@facuherediaa]

Who is this guy

[@AndrewTBP]

Read the Description

[@menkomonty]

To quote a great scientist. Everybody knows that the moon is made of cheese.

[@ThibauddeLaMarnierre]

Cette théorie semble controversée, bien que la plus probable.

[@R_V_]

Sans controverse, pas de vraie science.

[@ThibauddeLaMarnierre]

@@R_V_ en effet.

[@escanorkei]

I'M EARLY FOR ONCE HAHAHA YES

[@stevejeffryes5086]

Not news