By Travis Howard, | January 15, 2017
Scientists have revealed that the moon is apparently much older than previous estimates.
Despite ultramodern technology, scientists had incorrectly estimated the age of the moon. A new study has revealed that the moon is about 4.51 billion years old.
The latest estimate of the moon's age was made possible by the Apollo 14 mission. In 1971, a crew of astronauts traveled to the moon and collected rocks and soil samples.
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Upon deep analysis of these samples, scientists have deduced that the moon is much older than previously thought.
The moon was apparently formed within the first 60 million years of the formation of our solar system. It was initially believed that the moon was somewhere between 100 to 200 million years old. That estimate was nowhere close to its recently discovered age of roughly 4.6 billion years.
According to ABC News, scientists recalculated the age of the moon after carrying out uranium-lead dating on small pieces of zircon, a mineral which was extracted from the lunar samples brought by Apollo 14. These zircon pieces are extremely small, around the size of sand grains.
The study also revealed that the moon was built from debris from the Earth.
More studies are being conducted on the zircon fragments, and we can look forward to more revelations in the future.
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