Ancient Earth Impact - stock illustration

Evidence exists that make astronomers believe that the Earth and the Moon were created when a Mars09/14/2009sized object slammed into the early proto09/14/2009earth, about 4.6 billion years ago. Recent findings suggest that heavier metals like gold, platinum, palladium and other iron09/14/2009loving elements found in Earth's and the Moon's crusts and mantles came from similar, but much smaller impacts at the final stage of formation.