14 DAY TRIAL // Evidence at hand indicates that, since it formed about 4.5 billion years ago until now, our planet has lost its atmosphere at least twice. What this means is that Earth's atmosphere in this day and age is nothing like it was when our planet first came into being.
For some time now, scientists have been scratching their heads looking to figure out how and why such dramatic events came to happen in Earth's history. According to a recent MIT study, a blitz attack carried out by space rocks is the most likely culprit.
Thus, in a recent paper, the researchers argue that, all things considered, it could be that our good old planet lost its primordial atmosphere after being bombarded by an army made up of tens of thousands of fairly small space rocks. This happened around the same time that the moon formed.
The scientists explain that, in order for Earth to lose its primordial atmosphere almost it its entirety, it would have had to collide with a celestial body about its size or as big as Mars. The thing is that, had such an impact occurred, our planet would surely bear the scars of this catastrophe.
Hence, the MIT researchers argue that Earth was instead bombarded by tens of thousands of space rocks measuring about 25 kilometers (approximately 15.5 miles) in diameter that, when hitting our planet's surface, caused clouds of gas to form. These clouds ejected the atmosphere into space.
The researchers argue that, contrary to what some might assume, such a scenario is not all that unlikely. Thus, they explain that, according to evidence at hand, space rocks were a common sight in our solar system billions of years ago. They might have even left Venus and Mars without their atmospheres.
Interestingly enough, the scientists theorized that, while ripping apart Earth's primordial atmosphere, the army of space rocks also introduced new gases to the planet. In time, these gases made it possible for life to emerge and thrive on our home planet.
