https://www.independent.co.uk/space/moon-age-solar-system-earth-b2434580.html
Around 4.5 billion years ago, a chunk of Earth was ripped off – and became our Moon
I wouldn't call 40 millions years far older, it's basically the equivalent to a 3 months difference between two 30 year olds. If anything the amazing part is how we are able to determine this with such level of precision.
Yeah, it puts it in better perspective to say they changed the estimate from 4.44 to 4.46 billion years ago. "Far older" my ass.
I have it on good authority that the Moon is a reincarnated 16 year old girl from the water tribe.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Billions of years ago, a huge object the size of Mars collided with the Earth, scientists believe.
The discovery was made using dust that had been bought back from the Moon by astronauts who travelled there in the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
“These samples were brought to Earth half-a-century ago, but only today do we have the necessary tools to perform microanalysis at the requisite level, including atom-probe tomography.”
Researchers analysed the crystals on an atomic basis, allowing them to count how many of them had seen radioactive decay.
“Radiometric dating works a little bit like an hourglass,” said the Field Museum’s Philipp Heck, the study’s senior author.
An article describing the work, ‘4.46 Ga zircons anchor chronology of lunar magma ocean’, is published in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters.
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