The universe is indeed vast and mysterious where most of its regions are still unexplored and undiscovered. Recently, scientists proposed that in that vast universe lies an unknown planetary object which could hold the answer to the earth's origin.
The unknown planetary object is a doughnut-shaped object called a synestia, which is formed when planets collide with each other. This theory was proposed by a pair of planetary scientists from the University of California -Davis and Harvard University.
According to their reports, rocky planets were pulverized many times during their formation which could have formed synestias. If this theory gets approved by the astronomical society, synestia will become part of the science textbooks in the future as one of Earth's earliest forms.
One of the most popular theories how Earth was formed was that of two planets colliding with each other. What was left of the giant impact eventually evolved to become Earth while some of the scattered debris became the Moon.
Planetary scientists Sarah Stewart from UC Davis and Simon Lock from Harvard said that they have been studying the exact time that cataclysmic collision occurred and added that Earth's origins is more complicated than we think.
Synestia, according to Lock and Stewart, lasts for around 200 years and contains much larger volume than the two objects that collided with each other. They added that these objects do not have solids or liquids on their surface and can even form a whole new structure.
Then, after being a synestia for a century, the object will lose its heat and will condense back to become a solid object to become planets. If this hypothesis is confirmed, this will shed some light not only to how Earth was formed but also of how the Moon was formed.
The research was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
