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Scientists believe moon is 40 million years older than first thought
UPI ^
| OCT. 23, 2023 AT 12:00 PM
| By Simon Druker
Posted on 10/24/2023 10:39:43 AM PDT by Red Badger
Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Scientists now believe the moon could actually be around 40 million years older than initially believed, according to new research.
The finding comes after a group of researchers reexamined a collection of dust collected from the lunar surface and brought back to Earth in 1972, the last time astronauts visited the moon.
Scientists took an in-depth look at crystals embedded within the dust, which was returned to Earth as part of NASA's Apollo 17 mission.
Researchers believe a massive collision of debris with Earth led to the creation of the moon. That impact took place around 100 million years after the solar system's formation and led to a large concentration of material being propelled into the atmosphere, creating our planet's moon.
Initially molten hot, the energy from the collision cooled, allowing scientists to measure and calculate age based on analysis of the crystals in the lunar dust.
"Because we know how old these crystals are, they serve as an anchor for the lunar chronology," study co-author and University of Chicago professor Philipp Heck said in a statement.
The moon was initially thought to be around 4.42 billion years old.
Research, which also involved the University of Glasgow, now puts that age at approximately 4.46 billion years.
"These findings require pushing the timing of the solidification of the lunar crust to within at least the first 100 Myr of the formation of the solar system and provide a minimum age for the Giant Impact event that formed the Earth-Moon system," the study's authors wrote in their findings, published in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters.
"This age pushes back the age of the first preserved lunar crust by ∼40 [million years] and provides a minimum formation age for the moon within 110 [million years] after the formation of the solar system."
Through its Artemis Program, NASA hopes to return a team of astronauts to the moon in 2025.
TOPICS: Astronomy; History; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: astronomy; catastrophism; lunarorigin; moon; science; themoon
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To: Pontiac
You missed the sarcasm tag. (Which was written in invisible ink.) It’s interesting, but not world shattering. Oh, wait, it was world shattering. 4.46 billion, give or take a billion, years.
To: Red Badger
I don’t know. The headline begins Scientists believe. Sounds a bit faith based to me. :)
22
posted on
10/24/2023 11:11:46 AM PDT
by
xp38
To: rightwingcrazy
That's the half THEY don't want you to see on the right.
To: Red Badger; 75thOVI; Abathar; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AnalogReigns; AndrewC; ...
The rest of the keyword, sorted:
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- Geologists dig into Grand Canyon's mysterious gap in time [08/22/2021]
- Mysterious melting of Earth's crust in Western North America, from BC, Canada to Sonora, Mexico [04/29/2021]
- Vast Fragments of an Alien World Could Be Buried Deep Within Earth Itself [03/25/2021]
- Astronomy Picture of the Day - Found on the Moon: Candidate for Oldest Known Earth Rock [02/03/2021]
- An Asteroid Trailing After Mars Could Actually Be The Stolen Twin of Our Moon [11/04/2020]
- Study suggests Earth and Moon not identical oxygen twins [03/10/2020]
- Space stunner: Moon is shrinking, shocking study reveals [05/13/2019]
- The moon may be made from a magma ocean that once covered Earth [05/01/2019]
- How Old Is Earth? [02/09/2019]
- Moon discovery: Ancient 4-billion-year-old relic found on lunar surface [possible Earth rock] [01/25/2019]
- Quake split a tectonic plate in two, and geologists are shaken [10/29/2018]
- A Collision in Space 466 Million Years Ago Is Still Hurling Asteroids at Earth [07/05/2018]
- Earth's days used to be just 18 hours long, but the Moon changed that [06/07/2018]
- Days on Earth Are Getting Longer, Thanks to the Moon [06/06/2018]
- Jupiter and Venus Change Earth's Orbit Every 405,000 Years [05/10/2018]
- What if the Moon was split in half? [05/01/2018]
- The Moon WASN'T formed with one giant impact but had a bombardment birth after 20 moonlets hit... [03/18/2018]
- The moon formed inside a hot cosmic doughnut, scientists say [03/03/2018]
- The Moon's equatorial bulge hints at Earth's early conditions [02/15/2018]
- Earth and Venus are the Same Size, so Why Doesn't Venus Have a Magnetosphere?.... [12/12/2017]
- Asteroids 'dumped water into molten Moon' [05/31/2016]
- NASA Research Provides New Details On Mystery of How the Moon Got 'Inked' [05/01/2016]
- Ancient lunar polar ice reveals tilting of Moon's axis [03/26/2016]
- Explosive volcanoes ended Earth's time as a snowball: Huge eruptions broke our planet's deep freeze [01/18/2016]
- Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution V [01/10/2016]
- Ancient Earth Remnant Is Inside Earth, Study Says [06/28/2014]
- A collision 4.5 billion years ago nearly destroyed our planet but instead helped start path to life [06/15/2014]
- Moon created in violent collision with Earth, clues in Apollo rocks suggest. [06/05/2014]
- Scientists May Be Wrong About The Amount of Water In The Moon [04/02/2014]
- Crystal is 'oldest scrap of Earth crust' [02/24/2014]
- Water Hidden in the Moon May Have Proto-Earth Origin [09/15/2013]
- How the American West was made -- a new view of plate tectonics [04/03/2013]
- Solar System Ice: Source of Earth's Water [07/14/2012]
- Free-floating planets in the Milky Way outnumber stars by factors of thousands [05/10/2012]
- Titanium Paternity Test Fingers Earth as Moon's Sole Parent [03/31/2012]
- Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Evolution of the Moon [ video ] [03/20/2012]
- Meet 'Amasia,' the Next Supercontinent [02/09/2012]
- Who Needs a Moon? [05/28/2011]
- Moon's interior water casts doubt on formation theory [05/26/2011]
- Moon has liquid core just like Earth...reveal sensors left on surface by astronauts 40 YEARS ago [01/09/2011]
- Astronauts, Artists Agree: Moon Stinks of Gunpowder [10/26/2010]
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- Moon Not Only Has Water, but Lots of It [10/21/2010]
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- The Moon may have formed in a nuclear explosion [01/30/2010]
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- The Search for the Solar System's Lost Planet [04/13/2009]
- STEREO Hunts for Remains of an Ancient Planet near Earth [04/10/2009]
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- The Curious Case of Missing Asteroids [03/03/2009]
- Far side of the moon 'could have been visible from earth' [01/23/2009]
- Were Mercury and Mars separated at birth? [01/19/2009]
- Source of Moon's Magnetism Found [01/15/2009]
- Did Earth's Twin Cores Spark Plate Tectonics? [01/07/2009]
- Moon Has Iron Core, Lunar-Rock Study Says [12/06/2008]
- Moon Is Younger And More Earth-Like Than Thought [12/20/2007]
- Earth's Moon is 'cosmic rarity' [11/21/2007]
- Earth's Moon is Rare Oddball [11/20/2007]
- Ancient impact may have bowled the Moon over [10/30/2007]
- Far-Flung Space Crash May Help Solve Mystery of Moon's Formation [06/16/2007]
- Amazon River Once Flowed in Opposite Direction [10/24/2006]
- Planets Around Planets? [06/05/2006]
- Neptune Might Have Captured Triton [05/10/2006]
- An explosion on the Moon [12/24/2005]
- Comet or Meteorite Impact Events in 1178AD? [01/03/2005]
- New evidence for the Moon's soft middle [12/27/2004]
- It Came from Outer Space? [11/25/2004]
- When the Days Were Shorter [10/04/2004]
- A Celestial Collision [09/15/2004]
- In the shadow of the Moon [08/31/2004]
- No Moon, no life on Earth, suggests theory [03/20/2004]
- Heavenly Bodies Stir Up Routine Catastrophes [03/18/2003]
- Long-Destroyed Fifth Planet May Have Caused Lunar Cataclysm, Researchers Say [03/25/2002]
- Earth-Shattering Theory:FINALLY, THE DETAILS FOR FORMING THE MOON WORK OUT [10/11/2001]
24
posted on
10/24/2023 11:13:10 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
To: Red Badger
What? Last *I* heard they believed it was a space ship.
only half /s
To: Red Badger
The layer of dust on the moon is only a few inches thick.
The reason Apollo Lunar Lander module had those really large bowls at bottom of each leg was that “science” said the layer of dust would be several feet deep.
That prediction was based on the prejudice that the moon was many millions of years old (or even older).
Imagine the surprise 😱 when there was no sinkage.
So the moon is not old, old, old. What a strange turn of events./s
To: Red Badger
Why not just make it 100 million? 🙄
27
posted on
10/24/2023 11:23:00 AM PDT
by
Georgia Girl 2
(The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
To: Seruzawa
Yeah, that’s the same excuse the property tax office uses.
28
posted on
10/24/2023 11:23:24 AM PDT
by
bgill
To: Red Badger
Another insignificant and unimportant discovery.
29
posted on
10/24/2023 11:25:01 AM PDT
by
Sequoyah101
(Procrastination is just a form of defiance)
To: Red Badger
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. And she may have lied about her age.
30
posted on
10/24/2023 11:25:45 AM PDT
by
MtnClimber
(For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, clic/k on my screen name for my FR home page.)
To: Lonesome in Massachussets
Here's how to write your sarc tag in invisible ink:
/sarc
Please highlight the previous blank line.
I did it with this:
< font color=white > /sarc < /font >
I know you weren't asking for this but I just spend 5 minutes figuring this out and thought I would give you the benefit of my extremely valuable research. /sarc
To: Telepathic Intruder
I appreciate the effort, but I already knew that. My jibe about sarcasm was sarcasm.
In case you didn’t know, sarcasm is this new innovation taking the internet by storm.
To: Lonesome in Massachussets
If that’s the dark side of the moon on the right, how did they light it up to take the picture?
To: Lonesome in Massachussets
Actually almost all of the 5 minutes of research was figuring out how to display html code without executing the html code. But whatever.
To: Red Badger
40 M years older than was thought before. Or 30, or 47 or 53….
More funding for scientists is needed to get clarity on this vital subject!
35
posted on
10/24/2023 11:36:04 AM PDT
by
exinnj
To: Red Badger
Through its Artemis Program, NASA hopes to return a team of astronauts to the moon in 2025.
It’s kind of sad really, I remember a time when it would have been said that “...NASA PLANS...to return.
36
posted on
10/24/2023 11:41:29 AM PDT
by
tet68
( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
To: tet68
We see this every decade.
One administration wants to go, the next one doesn’t.
GWB wanted a manned Mars mission that should have launched by now..............
37
posted on
10/24/2023 11:43:48 AM PDT
by
Red Badger
(Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
To: Red Badger
38
posted on
10/24/2023 11:49:50 AM PDT
by
BlackbirdSST
(Trump or Bust! Long live the Republic.)
To: ClearCase_guy
“Science” has been wrong in the past, but never in the present.
39
posted on
10/24/2023 11:53:32 AM PDT
by
ChessExpert
(Required for informed consent: "We have a new, experimental vaccine.")
To: BlackbirdSST
Apparently so!...................
40
posted on
10/24/2023 11:56:25 AM PDT
by
Red Badger
(Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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