Cosmic pile-up gives glimpse of how planets are made bbc.com
Astronomers say they have the first evidence of a head-on collision between two planets in a distant star system. They believe two objects smacked into each other to produce an iron-rich world, with nearly 10 times the mass of Earth. A similar collision much closer to home may have led to the formation of the Moon 4.5 billion years ago. The discovery was made by astronomers in the Canary Islands observing a star system 1,600 light years away. One planet – called Kepler 107c – is thought to have an iron core that makes up 70% of its mass, with the rest potentially consisting of rocky mantle.
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