<p>The giant impact hypothesis was not formulated to address the issue of how the Earth acquired its waters. At the time the giant impact hypothesis was formulated, the dominant theory for how the Earth acquired its waters was impacts by comets and wet asteroids during the late heavy bombardment.</p>

<p>The giant impact hypothesis was instead formulated to address the issue of how the Earth acquired its very large moon.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-15T13:37:37.787Z
2015-12-15T13:37:37.787Z
David Hammen
<p>It used to be thought that the unusual amount of water on our planet was the result of a giant collision between proto-Earth and a dwarf planet or planetoid called Theia. I recently heard of some oxygen isotope research which indicates that the giant impact hypothesis wasn't necessary to explain the oceans. So is the giant impact hypothesis still alive, modified or dead?</p>

<water><planetary-formation>
Is the giant impact hypothesis still alive?
Gordon Stanger
# Is the giant impact hypothesis still alive?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-12-14)

It used to be thought that the unusual amount of water on our planet was the result of a giant collision between proto-Earth and a dwarf planet or planetoid called Theia. I recently heard of some oxygen isotope research which indicates that the giant impact hypothesis wasn't necessary to explain the oceans. So is the giant impact hypothesis still alive, modified or dead?

**Tags:** water, planetary-formation


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-12-15. Score: 4

The giant impact hypothesis was not formulated to address the issue of how the Earth acquired its waters. At the time the giant impact hypothesis was formulated, the dominant theory for how the Earth acquired its waters was impacts by comets and wet asteroids during the late heavy bombardment.

The giant impact hypothesis was instead formulated to address the issue of how the Earth acquired its very large moon.


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