(PRINTWORDS NEWS) Mystery regarding Moon origin has become even stranger, after the scientists discovered that it is millions of years younger than it were previously thought. The new discovery is published online on Wednesday in a journal “Nature”, where the scientists claim that either Moon is millions of years younger or it has gradually evolved with time. The scientists came to a conclusion that the moon is formed about 4.36 million years ago, after Earth and an object of the size of Mars clashed each other. The energy created from this clash was so high that moon formed and it took billions years for the molten magma to solidify.
The scientists became curious and to know in detail about the age of the moon, hence, they researched and investigated the samples of moon rock. Their main object of study was ferroan anorthosites, which is known to be the oldest of lunar rocks.
Initially they faced a problem in experimenting with these samples, however, Lars Borg of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California led a whole team to research on FAN (ferroan anorthosites) samples and implement new techniques to determine the age.
The whole research was carried out in Nasa Johnson Space Centre, where the team examined neodymium and isotopes of FAN to find out it’s age to be 4.36 billion years. This figure clearly shows that the samples were nearly 200 million years younger than thought. Previously the scientists estimated the moon to be 4.5 billion years old.
Lars Borg, the lead researcher of this study said that after years of study and research, the team has finally found out “the ages of lunar crustal rocks with high precision”. He also added, “We can apply this technique to address many questions regarding the timing of ancient events on the moon”.
Richard Carlson, who was also one of the researchers, said that the whole revelation suggests that either the scientists need to change their understanding about “Moon’s geochemical history” or it solidified much later than it was expected.
