Apollo 17 astronauts left a fresh discovery when they collected and brought back a piece of rock from the moon. The unique rock, hailing from the lunar highlands, was used by researchers to determine and reveal the moon’s true age.
In a study led by the University of Münster scientists, the isotope-based data from the Apollo 17 sample was used to gain new evidence that provides an estimate for the moon’s age. The findings from this study reveal that the moon is likely 4.51 billion years old – a figure nondestructively gathered for the first time.
This age tallied more closely with the estimates from Apollo 15 and 16 than from Apollo 14, whose age was considered to be younger than the commonly accepted time frame for the moon’s formation. The discovery controverts the revisionist theories, affirming instead that the moon is older than previously thought.
The rock collected by Apollo 17 also is representative of other samples taken from the moon’s surface. The study’s authors suggest that the diverse composition of the surface material spread evenly across the moon, in comparison to the more unevenly distributed elements on Earth.
The new analyses of the Apollo 17 rock sample stand as the most trustworthy evidence for the moon’s age, and have been accepted in the scientific literature. The study’s authors were satisfied with the results, and deemed them to be both objective and reliable.
For astronomers, the findings are revolutionary. And yet, despite its age, the Moon stands as a powerful reminder that time is relative and that even the oldest of bodies have an element of mystery. To this day, the Trekkers’ moonshot still echoes in the dark chamber of the unknown.
