""proto Earth,""
""This is maybe the first direct evidence that we've preserved the proto Earth materials,""
""We see a piece of the very ancient Earth, even before the giant impact. This is amazing because we would expect this very early signature to be slowly erased through Earth's evolution.""
A primitive proto-Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago as a molten body. A Mars-sized impact less than 100 million years later blasted debris that formed the Moon and permanently altered Earth's composition. Most original proto-Earth material was thought to be erased by subsequent evolution. A distinct chemical anomaly appears in ancient, deep-set terrestrial rocks. Meteorite samples from across the solar system provide a 4.6-billion-year compositional timeline. The chemical anomaly in ancient rocks aligns with meteorite-derived early solar system signatures, indicating preserved fragments of the pre-impact proto-Earth within modern Earth mantle rocks.
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