Moon could be 85 million years younger than previously perceived: Study

While the definition of outer space continues to change with new discoveries, a recent study has found out that Earth’s natural satellite, the Moon could be 85 million years younger than what was previously perceived as per calculations. A team of planetary geophysicists at the German Aerospace Center have used a numerical model to reconstruct the process of formation of Moon which theoretically was formed as the result of a collision between protoplanet body of Mars’ size and ‘young Earth’. 

The lead author of the study, Maxime Maurice from the German Aerospace Center has said, “The results of our latest modelling suggest that the young Earth was hit by a protoplanet some 140 million years after the birth of the Solar System 4.567 billion years ago. According to our calculations, this happened 4.425 billion years ago – with an uncertainty of 25 million years – and the Moon was born."

Over 4.5 billion years ago, there were a lot of simultaneous activities that were taking place in the Solar System while the formation of earth was still in a primitive stage. It was around this chaotic time when a cosmic collision between Earth and a protoplanet dubbed as Theia is assumed to have taken place that resulted in the formation of Moon. The collision, however, released a huge amount of energy and rocks and dust in vapour form. This dust further got ejected only to surround the Earth by making a ring and then settle in the form of rock. 

Magma ocean and first rocky crust on the Moon
Image Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Therefore, the co-author of the same study, Doris Breuer from german Aerospace Center explained, “From this, the Moon was formed in a short time, probably in just a few thousand years." But researchers previously had calculated the birth of Moon to be simultaneous with Earth, that is, at least 4.425 billion years ago with an uncertainty of at least 25 million years. Now, the new estimate has suggested that earth’s natural satellite was formed 85 million years earlier than what was previously expected. 

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How did the researchers derive it?

As per a statement issued by study co-author Sabrina Schwinger, a researcher at the German Aerospace Center, "By comparing the measured composition of the moon's rocks with the predicted composition of the magma ocean from our model, we were able to trace the evolution of the ocean back to its starting point, the time at which the moon was formed."

Thorsten Kleine, a professor at the Institute of Planetology at the University of Münster in Germany added, “This is the first time that the age of the Moon can be directly linked to an event that occurred at the very end of the Earth's formation, namely the formation of the core.”

One of the oldest Moon rocks
Image Source: NASA/JSC/AACO

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