A team of Harvard scientists may have found an indication that a portion of an ancient Earth exists inside our planet’s mantle.

A study presented at the Goldschmidt conference in Sacramento, California, claims that the previously inexplicable isotope ratio from the depths of the Earth may be an ‘echo” of the ancient Earth that existed before the collision with another celestial body, which is estimated to have led to the formation of the Moon 4.5 billion years ago.

According to the authors of the study, the ratio may represent a signal from a material that existed prior to the moment of the collision.

Scientists of the Harvard University led by Associate Professor Sujoy Mukhopadhyay believe that only a portion of the Earth melted as a result of the collision, and that in the depths of our planet’s mantle there still exists a part of the ancient Earth.

Scientists have studied the isotope ratio of noble gases from the depths of the Earth’s mantle and compared it to the isotope ratio of the gases found closer to the surface. They found that the ratio of 3He to 22Ne from the surface layers of the mantle is much higher than the one of its deeper layers.

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