The Earth may have swallowed its planet

British researchers hypothesize that the Earth once "swallowed" a planet that is similar to Mercury and is about the same size as Mars.

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Bernard Wood, an expert at Oxford University, said Earth was thought to be made up of small meteorites. This is a relatively reasonable theory with previous research results, but not perfect because many questions still have no answers, especially the energy source that creates the Earth's magnetic field.

Mercury.(Photo: NASA)

To create the Earth's magnetic field, the required element is radioactive substances such as potassium, thorium or uranium in the planet's liquid iron core . However, these elements are attracted to oxygen and combine with oxygen to produce oxides, while oxides are very light and tend to move near the Earth's crust, so they will not be able to stay in the core. The element also avoids contact with iron, so there is no way to keep enough of the radioactive material in the Earth's core to power the "shield " from the field.

Wood and his colleague Anke Wohlers realized that if there was a reduced source of sulfide in the metal core, iron-free radioactive elements could coexist with metals . According to the Sydney Morning Herald, using a computer model to replicate these conditions, they found that uranium strongly decayed into sulfur-rich metal under oxygen-poor conditions.

Scientists believe that this amount of sulfide comes from an object that is relatively similar to Mercury, rich in sulfur and very poor in oxygen . They said that at the beginning, the Earth had " swallowed " a planet with Mercury-like structure and the size of Mars. This amount of sulfide comes from a planet of relatively similar Mercury-rich sulfur of the planet that keeps uranium in the core and provides energy for magnetic fields about 3.5 billion years.