MIT Geologists Uncover Traces of Earth’s Primordial Origins

MIT scientists have found the first direct evidence of material from the original “proto-Earth” — the planet that existed before the giant impact that formed our world 4.5 billion years ago.

By detecting an unusual potassium-40 isotope imbalance in ancient rocks from Greenland and Hawaii, researchers revealed remnants of Earth’s earliest building blocks — material that even meteorites don’t fully capture.