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The Moon Is Even Older Than Scientists Thought

How did the moon form and how old is it? The most precise dating yet of Earth's largest satellite found that it is much older than previously thought.

By Matt Hrodey
Oct 24, 2023 2:00 PMOct 24, 2023 2:10 PM
Moon surface
Dating the moon depended on small crystals contained within lunar dust. (Credit: HelenField)

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Thanks to one of the slowest-ticking clocks in the universe, scientists have determined the moon is about 40 million years older than previously thought.

That means the Earth was a young 100 million years old when an object about the size of Mars slammed into it, slinging magma out into Earth’s orbit.

Over time, all that material cooled and formed into what we now refer to as the moon. It's unknown whether this took years or mere hours, per a 2022 simulation.

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