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Our satellite, the moon, is 85 million years younger

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Our satellite, the moon, is 85 million years younger

In a brand new examine by the German Aerospace Middle, specialists discovered that, along with having as soon as a huge ocean of magma, our rocky satellite tv for pc has additionally shaped later than anticipated by scientists. To seek out out, the timeline of the formation of the Moon was reconstructed.

Billions of years in the past, a Mars-sized protoplanet crashed onto a nonetheless younger Earth and, amidst particles and cosmic rubble, a brand new rocky physique was shaped: our Moon. Scientists beforehand thought this collision had occurred 4.51 billion years in the past, whereas the new examine locations it at 4.425 billion years in the past.

The staff used mathematical fashions for calculate the composition of the celestial physique over time. Based mostly on the concept that our satellite tv for pc housed a big ocean of magma, the researchers calculated the minerals that shaped throughout the cooling of the magma. Following the timeline of the magmatic ocean, scientists have been in a position to hint the full formation of the moon.

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By evaluating the measured composition of the lunar rocks with the anticipated composition of the magma ocean from our mannequin, we have been in a position to hint the evolution of the ocean to its start line, the second when the moon was shaped“says examine co-author Sabrina Schwinger.”This is the first time that the moon’s age could be immediately linked to an occasion that occurred at the finish of Earth’s formation“provides Thorsten Kleine, professor at the Institute of Planetology.

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