Posted on 08/04/2023 9:36:34 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski
A study in the journal Earth and Planetary Science has questioned the origin of a Moon rock sample collected during a 1971 NASA Moon landing. The startling study published this week has found the Moon rock’s chemical composition is much closer to Earth rock than it is to Moon rock. Researchers have found traces of quartz in the Moon rock – a mineral typically not found on the Moon. The Moon rock sample in question was collected by NASA’s Apollo 14 mission, which saw astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell land on the Moon.
The rock was then loaned by NASA to Curtin University in Western Australia where it was analysed by a team of international researchers.
The researchers have now suggested the rock made its way to the surface of the Moon after an asteroid slammed into our home world billion of years ago.
Research author Professor Alexander Nemchin, from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said in a statement the tiny 1.8-gram sample of Moon rock is similar in composition to granite.
The expert said: “The sample also contains quartz, which is an even more unusual find on the Moon.
“By determining the age of zircon found in the sample, we were able to pinpoint the age of the host rock at about four billion years old, making it similar to the oldest rocks on Earth.
“In addition, the chemistry of the zircon in this sample is very different from that of every other zircon grain ever analysed in lunar samples and remarkably similar to that of zircons found on Earth.”
Based on the rock’s chemical composition, Professor Nemchin concluded the zircon formed at a low temperature.
The rock most likely also formed in the presence of water and oxygen, further suggesting it came from Earth…
(Excerpt) Read more at express.co.uk ...
Your tagline is ironic.
This thread ... and the similar threads so conveniently posted over the last three days ... are examples.
My tagline is fine. I’m not the one getting my comments zapped by the moderator. You are.
I'm not the troll.
I'm the one calling out the trolls.
You’re doing a lousy job.
Read an article years ago some in planetary sciences believe the moon was part of earth billions of years ago.
Not sure not about it little news about it I have found?.
when are people going to open their eyes.....why haven’t “we” been back to the moon?.....oh they lost the plans....
I learned in 4 th grade there are tectites (sp) or rock on earth that are from the moon , as a result of asteroid collisions.
So why wouldn’t the opposite happen?
This 🤨.
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