Have you ever questioned about the real moon age that you usually adore at night? Perhaps, you should ask the scientists for the answer. Recently, new research regarding the age of the moon has just been completed. This research was led by UCLA and found out that the moon is actually much older than the previous scientists have thought. This thorough research found out that moon is more than 4.51 billion years old. This age is 140 million years older that what previous research has found out. So, how did the scientist conduct this research?
Moon Age Examination Using Zircon
These findings were concluded from several examinations including the examination of minerals that were brought from the moon by mission in 1971 known as the Apollo 14. These minerals are known as zircons which are actually types of valuable stone. It has been commonly known that the real age of the moon has been hot topic to be debated. According to this recent research, the hints regarding the formation of the moon have been found out. The moon was predicted to be formed by the violent collision that happened head-on between the Theia, a planetary embryo and early Earth.
It is concluded, that 60 million years following the solar system birth, the moon was finally formed. This is an important point as it provides necessary and critical information for all planetary scientists and astronomers who have been seeking to understand the solar and Earth early evolution. However, this has been a difficult task to do almost anything that was there before the occurrence of giant impact has mostly been erased. These findings are used by the scientist to solve the puzzle regarding the major events.
Zircons as Clocks
There are many reasons basically that make it difficult to determine the real moon age. One of the reasons is the fact that most of the moon rocks contain patchwork of fragment where each fragment contains of multiple other rocks. And the zircons, the native rocks from moon are the best clocks of the nature as it helps to tell the age of the room and other planet. Zircon itself is considered the best mineral to reveal where it originated and to preserve the geological history. Therefore, the Zircon is undoubtedly an important part to solve further puzzle of the moon.
With the new finding regarding the moon age, scientists still have a lot of things to do including to observe and examine other objects in our solar system.
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