The moon may be older than we thought
As much as the Universe is infinite on a practical level, so is the knowledge that people acquire about it. And this state means that it will never cease to amaze us, as shown by the latest discovery about our satellite: A new study has recalculated the age of the Moon, which until now was approximately 4.425 million years –and concluded that it is about 40 million years older than previously thought.
The results were published in the journal Letters on Geochemical Perspectivesalthough they are not conclusive as researchers believe that due to planned lunar missions In the coming months and years, clues may be found on the Moon that I doubt it againage updated in 2023.
However, changing the chronological order is necessary not only in order to find out the process of creating our satellite, but also to obtain more about the circumstances under which it was formed: What does this phenomenon tell us about Earth? What was our planet like then? The answers to these questions seem to be getting closer to being known.
Moon dust is the key to understanding the age of the satellite
Just as a tree’s growth rings (those concentric circles you see on a trunk when it’s cut down) give us an approximation of its age, moon dust contains materials that, when analyzed, can tell us how a tree came to be. satellite.
10 Scientific Evidence Proving Man Reached the Moon
They were astronauts Apollo 17, in 1972, who collected samples of lunar rocks and brought them to Earth so that experts could study their composition. Thanks to this, it was possible to find out that one of the first minerals to crystallize during the formation of the Moon was zircon (ZrSiO4)which has the property of absorbing uranium isotopes from the environment.
Apollo 17 Station 5: panoramic view of the surface after the Moon landing (1972).
Application uranium and lead dating systemwhich is commonly used in geochemistry to date rocks that crystallized millions of years ago, numerous studies have been conducted over this half century that have reached conclusions about the age of the Moon.
However, a new study that takes previous hypotheses as a starting point and puts an innovative technique into practice atom probe tomographyfound the oldest satellite zircon fragment discovered so far that would have crystallized earlier 4.46 billion years. This indicates that the Moon must be at least that old.
Why is the Moon’s south pole so important?
Thus, the change in figure This is not the result of an error in calculation or methodology.but no such old particles were found in previously analyzed samples.
Could he be even older?
NASA’s Artemis 3 mission, piloted and landing at the South Pole in December 2025, only one of many that will happen in the near future: This year, in fact, we have already witnessed several attempts to reach the most distant places on the Moon.
This indicates that sooner or later the ships will return with samples of lunar dust, which could reveal even more secrets about our satellite. And that, therefore, the figure determined in the new study is outdatedallowing us to approach with greater confidence the ancient origins of the Universe.