"Earth Gas Found in Moon Meteorite"...Is the Giant Impact Hypothesis Correct? [Reading Science]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Recently, with the launch of South Korea's first lunar exploration orbiter 'Danuri,' interest in the Moon has increased. Gas components found on meteorites fallen from the Moon have been discovered to contain gases that exist on Earth. This is considered research evidence supporting the 'giant impact hypothesis,' one of the various theories about the Moon's formation, which suggests that the Moon was formed by the accumulation of fragments ejected when an asteroid collided with the Earth before it had fully solidified.

According to the space specialized media Space.com on the 12th, a research team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) recently analyzed six lunar meteorite samples collected by NASA in Antarctica and discovered helium and neon gas components. The meteorites analyzed by the research team are basalt, a type of volcanic rock, formed when lava erupted from inside the Moon rapidly cooled. It is estimated that as these rocks cooled, glass molecules formed inside, trapping helium and neon gases. Additionally, after the basalt was formed, it was surrounded by other rock layers externally, which likely played a protective role, preserving the internal glass layers and gases.

The research team was able to extract helium and neon gas components from this basalt using an ultra-precise gas mass spectrometer. This is the first time gas has been found in lunar basalt meteorites discovered on Earth rather than on the lunar surface.

In particular, this discovery has attracted attention as another piece of evidence supporting the giant impact hypothesis, the most widely accepted theory about the Moon's formation.

The giant impact hypothesis posits that about 4.5 billion years ago, approximately 60 million years after the Earth was formed, an asteroid named 'Theia' collided with the Earth, and fragments of the Earth ejected by this impact gathered due to gravity to form the Moon. So far, lunar rocks collected through the U.S. Apollo program and China's Chang'e program have been found to have chemical compositions and structures very similar to those of Earth rocks, making this the most plausible theory. Other theories about the Moon's formation include the 'co-formation hypothesis' or 'sibling hypothesis,' which suggests the Moon and Earth formed almost simultaneously and the Moon was captured by Earth's gravity, and the 'fission hypothesis,' which proposes the Moon was formed from material ejected by Earth's rapid rotation.

Meanwhile, Danuri, launched on the 5th, is equipped with a high-resolution camera, a wide-field polarization camera, a magnetometer, and a gamma-ray detector, all developed with domestic technology. It plans to investigate the composition of the lunar surface, geological formation processes, and resource distribution through various observation methods.