New Study Shows That Earth and Mars Had Different Origins

What happened

A surprising discovery suggests that Mars and Earth formed through different processes, which could help scientists confirm whether exoplanets are habitable. Their results suggest that a hybrid model that merges the two pathways could explain how rocky planets like Earth and Mars formed, which could have implications in the study of exoplanets.

Alas, there are still questions about how they formed, with scientists favoring one of two possible pathways. Either they emerged from collisions between larger rocks (planetesimals), or from the gradual accumulation of pebbles by planetesimals.

New research from the University of Copenhagen has offered new evidence that could settle the debate. Using a novel approach, they have reconstructed the earliest stages of the planets’ formation by analyzing their chemical composition.

The research was led by Assistant Professor Haiyang S. Wang and Professor Anders Johansen, researchers from the Center for Star and Planet Formation , part of the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen. A paper detailing their findings was published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy .