Earth actually TWO planets, scientists reveal

EARTH as we know it was forged in massive cosmic collision with a mysterious planet called Theia, scientists have found.

IMPACT: This is how the massive interplanetary car crash may have looked

Theia slammed into the original Earth so hard the two planets melded together – to form our homeworld.

The Moon was formed from debris flying off the interplanetary car crash

Space boffins have made the ground-breaking new discovery after examining rocks from the Earth and Moon.

CRASH: Theia may have been pulled into Earth's path by Jupiter and Venus

“Theia was thoroughly mixed into both the Earth and the Moon”

Professor Edward Young

The literally earth-shattering astral encounter is thought to have happened shortly after the original Earth formed from the “solar nebula” – a cloud of gas and dust left after the Sun’s formation – about 4.5billion years ago.

About 100million years later – a brief instant in history of the universe – the new planet smashed into Theia.

Scientists believe Theia was an “Earth trojan” – a space object with the same orbit as Earth – about the same size as Mars.

They previously thought the impact was only a glancing blow – and the Moon was formed from the remnants of Theia.

Some even thought there were originally two moons – which later merged.

If that were true the Moon would be made up of different materials from Earth.

But a team from the University of California has discovered the same kind of atoms on both – suggesting the space strike was so massive it mixed the two planets together.

MOON: The discovery means the Earth and Moon were once one

Professor Edward Young, of the team behind the new theory, said: “Theia was thoroughly mixed into both the Earth and the Moon and evenly dispersed between them.”

UFO hunters and amateur star gazers have warned a giant hidden planet from the outer Solar System called Nibiru will smash into Earth this year.

NASA has dismissed the theory as rubbish – but astronomers have now confirmed the unthinkable: that a giant hidden icy world dubbed “Planet Nine” DOES lurk beyond Pluto.

Conspiracy theorists are now convinced Planet Nine is Nibiru and will destroy us all.