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The chaos would have influenced the size, location, and composition of the rocky planets, and many researchers believe it could also explain why a Mars-size protoplanet crashed into Earth around this time, creating the Moon.

A giant collision between the young Earth and a smaller protoplanet has long been the prevailing theory for the Moon’s formation.

The collision was so powerful, it broke apart that impacting protoplanet, nicknamed Theia, and sent huge amounts of material into orbit around Earth—material that eventually coalesced into the moon.

The most popular theory says that about 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-size protoplanet slammed into Earth.

But scientists have lacked smoking-gun evidence like a crater or pieces of the protoplanet, named Theia.