NEW YORK, BRONX (ORDO News) — More than 4 billion years ago, a collision occurred that changed the history of our planet. An object the size of Mars crashed into the Earth, and a cloud of debris then formed the Moon.
The Apollo astronauts who first visited the Moon brought back samples that helped scientists determine the age of these events.
New research using atom probe tomography from researchers at Northwestern University, the Field Museum in Chicago, and the University of Glasgow in Scotland has pushed the event further back in time, placing the Moon’s formation at about 4.46 billion years ago. shortly after the formation of the Earth.
Using atom probe tomography, scientists studied lunar rocks and dust collected by astronauts during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. This high-tech technique allowed them to develop an improved radiometric dating method that can accurately determine the age of geological materials.
“This study is a testament to the enormous technological progress we have made since 1972, when the last crewed lunar mission returned to Earth,” said Northwestern’s Dieter Isheim, who co-authored the paper published in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters.
“These samples were brought to Earth half a century ago, but only today do we have the necessary tools to carry out microanalysis at the required level, including atom probe tomography.”
The study was carried out on atoms in zircon crystals, where they calculated how many atoms had undergone radioactive decay. This radiometric dating method, similar to an hourglass, allows scientists to determine the age of materials by measuring the number of parent and daughter atoms that resulted from radioactive radiation. The accuracy of this method depends on the special characteristics of zircon, a minor radioactive uranium.
“These crystals are the oldest known solids to form after a giant impact,” Heck said. “And because we know how old these crystals are, they provide the basis for lunar chronology.”
The results of the study were further analyzed by scientists, who concluded that the formation of the Moon occurred about 4.46 billion years ago, shortly after the formation of the Earth.
The researchers said it is important to know when the Moon formed because it is such an important part of our planetary system.
“It stabilizes the Earth’s axis of rotation, it’s the reason there are 24 hours in a day, it’s the reason we have tides,” Heck said. “Without the Moon, life on Earth would look different. It’s part of our natural system that we want to better understand, and our study represents a tiny piece of the puzzle in that whole picture.”
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