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92 points bikenaga | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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echelon ◴[] No.44503282[source]
Imagine if life had evolved on Earth or Theia prior to impact. Imagine if it was intelligent and played witness to the giant cataclysm.

Given that intelligence took an awfully long time to emerge from LUCA, that seems implausible. But it's fun to imagine pre-Theia "Silurians". That sort of impact would have scorched earth of any trace or remnant of their existence. It feels as though there must be sufficiently advanced civilizations out there witnessing this exact scenario play out without the necessary technology to stop it. Though that fate would be horrifying.

Another thing to think about is that shortly after the Big Bang (if there was one, Lamda-CDM or similar models holding up), was that shortly after the Big Bang the temperature of the early universe was uniformly 0-100 degrees Celsius. It may have been possible for life to originated in this primordial interstellar medium without even so much as needing a host planet or star! Just life coalescing in space itself.

That early primordial soup, if it existed, could have seeded the whole universe. Most aliens might have matching molecules and chirality if those decisions predate our galaxy.

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somanyphotons ◴[] No.44504329[source]
This animation makes it appear that proto-Earth was very comprehensibly torn apart, stunningly so

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theia_(hypothetical_planet)#Co...

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shadowgovt ◴[] No.44504663[source]
I remember there being some modeling done to determine whether the Theia impact blew a chunk off Earth or basically re-liquified the planet. If I recall correctly, the resulting hypothesis was that the thermal load would have re-melted at least the crust (evidence for this was stacking of density in the moon, suggesting it formed out of a basically completely-liquified ball, which would have implied the crust was also liquified).

There is some interesting evidence suggesting the deeper layers remained intact, in the form of a region under the Pacific that might be the impact scar. It's an inexplicably-dense zone that causes hot-spots at its corners resulting in increased surface volcanism, like how the edges of a leaf burn before the middle in a fire.

... but on the surface? Yeah, no hiding place.

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whycome ◴[] No.44504755[source]
Would oceans have remained at all?
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1. ahazred8ta ◴[] No.44505925{3}[source]
According to physics simulations, the atmosphere was composed of vaporised rock for several centuries after the impact until it cooled down below 1000 degrees. The entire surface was magma. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synestia