The Earth and other extraterrestrial objects that formed during the early years of the solar system share the same chemical origins, according to a new study.

Audrey Bouvier, a cosmochemist at the Western University in Ontario, Canada, discovered that the Earth shares the same chemical origin with other primitive materials in the solar system–a finding that shatters previous scientific beliefs about the Earth’s origins.

“How the Earth was formed and what type of planetary materials were part of that formation are issues that have puzzled generations of scientists,” Bouvier, who is also curator of the Western Meteorite Collection and principal investigator at Western University’s Center for Planetary Science and Exploration, said in a news release.

“And these new isotopic measurements of meteorites provide exciting…