The moon is much older than previously thought

The Moon may be 40 million years older than we previously thought, writes A Watchman. Scientists discovered this when they studied lunar dust brought to Earth by astronauts as part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. This was the last time a human stepped onto the surface of a celestial body orbiting Earth.

According to assumptions, the Moon could have been created about 100 million years after the formation of the solar system. At that time, an object the size of Mars collided with the Earth, as a result of which an amazing amount of material was ejected from our planet into space, which later formed a celestial body: the Moon.

Its surface was initially composed of hot magma, which slowly cooled and solidified. This process created small crystals that are still present in the lunar dust, and the age of the celestial body can be determined by examining them. According to previous research, the moon could have formed 4.42 billion years ago, but the results of a new study show that it could have formed 40 million years ago, that is, 4.46 billion years ago.

Dr. Roman Tartis The planetary scientist thinks it’s amazing that we can still make new discoveries based on 50-year-old samples. All this confirms that bringing additional samples from the Moon in the future is a very important goal. The expert also highlighted that it is not certain that all parts of the celestial body were formed at the same time, so there may be younger areas, but it is also possible that certain areas of the moon are older than that.