Volcanic Remelting Can Reset Moon’s Age, Claims Study – News18
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A fresh study has offered an intriguing explanation: the lunar surface may have remelted around 4.35 billion years ago, resetting the clock on the age of the Moon’s rocks and hiding its true age.
Scientists previously studied lunar samples brought back by the Apollo missions. (Photo Credits: X)
The Moon may hold a surprising secret, one that could make it older by more than 100 million years than previously believed. A fascinating new study has suggested that the lunar surface might have undergone a volcanic facelift, which could explain why it appears younger than it truly is. One reason to reconsider the Moon’s age is the presence of rare lunar zircon minerals, which point to its birth about 4.5 billion years ago. Other evidence comes from planetary simulations that indicate the giant impact that created the Moon would have been unlikely to occur more than a quarter-billion years after the solar system’s formation. These models suggest that most of the massive objects responsible for such colossal collisions were already pulled into larger bodies around 4.4 billion years ago.
Now, a fresh study has offered an intriguing explanation: the lunar surface may have remelted around 4.35 billion years ago, resetting the clock on the age of the Moon’s rocks and hiding its true age.
The origin of the Moon has long been a topic of intrigue. Early theories reportedly proposed that it formed after a collision between Earth and a Mars-sized body, often called Theia. This was thought to be the final massive impact in Earth’s history. However, the precise timing of this collision remains uncertain.
To determine the Moon’s age, scientists previously studied lunar samples brought back by the Apollo missions. These rocks are believed to have crystallised from a magma ocean that formed on the Moon following the last great impact. The resulting analysis indicated the Moon was about 4.35 billion years old, which seemed relatively young in the grand scheme of things, considering the solar system itself began forming around 4.6 billion years ago, informs Space.com.
“You can’t necessarily use the ages recorded by rocks to tell when the Moon formed,” said Francis Nimmo, lead author of the study and a planetary scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz, in an interview with Space.com.
The suspected cause of the Moon’s remelting is similar to the tidal forces responsible for the rise and fall of Earth’s oceans. Just as the Moon’s gravity affects Earth, our planet’s gravity also pulls on the Moon.
When the Moon first formed, it orbited Earth much closer than it does now, meaning Earth’s tidal effects on the Moon would have been far more powerful. The new study suggests these forces caused significant upheaval and intense heating, leading to widespread remelting. This could explain why there are fewer ancient lunar basins than expected, as these impact craters might have been erased over time.
The study also draws parallels to Jupiter’s moon Io, which experiences tidal forces similar to those the Moon may have encountered in its early history. Io, the most volcanically active body in the solar system, constantly reshapes its surface, offering insights into how tidal forces can reshape planetary bodies.
The researchers believe their computer models point to the Moon-forming about 80 million years after the solar system’s inception, which would make it older than previously thought.
The research team plans to run more detailed simulations to better understand how tidal heating may have influenced the Moon’s geological development. Their findings were published on December 18 in Nature and may pave the way for exciting new discoveries about our Moon’s true age.
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