A recent study published in Nature has shown that the moon may not be as old as once thought. With samples brought back from the Apollo 16 mission, researchers at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have determined one of two things: that either the moon is about 60 million years younger than thought, or the molten stage of development solidified later than previous estimates.

In the prevailing theory, during formation, as the magma of the moon cooled, crustal moon rocks formed called ferroan anorthocites. These mineral rocks have proved difficult for scientists, when it comes to scientifically dating them.

Lars Borg, from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said that with these samples, he and his colleagues have seen the first success in yielding consistent ages using multiple dating techniques. Borg and his colleagues utililzed new refining techniques to reach the new consistent age.

“Previous attempts to date these rocks have relied on just one isotopic clock which can be contaminated putting the age in error,” said Borg in a Discovery News article. “So we started with the idea that we would get multiple age samples so we could have confidence it reflected the crystallization age of the sample.”

The new projected age of the moon falls right around the age of the oldest crusts on Earth at about 4.36 billion years old. This number represents what scientists have found to be when the rock crystallized.

These new findings do oppose the popular “giant impact theory” of the moon’s formation. However, this research is not providing a clear alternative to this theory. Clive Neal, a planetary geologist at the University of Notre Dame told the Los Angeles Times that the researchers need more evidence. Before coming to the conclusion that the theory has been disproved, there must be more evidence of inaccurately dated rock samples.

Apollo 16 launched in 1972, as the tenth manned mission in the American Apollo Space Program. The mission brought back 94.7 kg of lunar samples that are still being tested today. This new research may spell change for other geological studies as well, using new techniques to overcome common problems with scientific dating.

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Lindsey Kratochwill

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