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submitted 11 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/astronomy@mander.xyz
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[-] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 32 points 11 months ago

I wouldn't call 40 millions years far older, it's basically the equivalent to a 3 months difference between two 30 year olds. If anything the amazing part is how we are able to determine this with such level of precision.

[-] blackbrook@mander.xyz 3 points 10 months ago

Yeah, it puts it in better perspective to say they changed the estimate from 4.44 to 4.46 billion years ago. "Far older" my ass.

[-] 1984@lemmy.today 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

But we don't. Next month some other study will float around guessing how old the moon is.

[-] BeefPiano@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

Huh? We just got a new moon a couple weeks ago!

[-] KingGordon@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

We have moon at home.

[-] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 5 points 11 months ago

Moon's haunted

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

I have it on good authority that the Moon is a reincarnated 16 year old girl from the water tribe.

[-] DemBoSain@midwest.social 1 points 11 months ago

Dude, she said she was 18 I swear...

[-] StealThisComment@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 11 months ago

That's rough, buddy.

[-] downpunxx@kbin.social 4 points 11 months ago
[-] someguy3@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 months ago

Space balls.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 3 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Billions of years ago, a huge object the size of Mars collided with the Earth, scientists believe.

The discovery was made using dust that had been bought back from the Moon by astronauts who travelled there in the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

“These samples were brought to Earth half-a-century ago, but only today do we have the necessary tools to perform microanalysis at the requisite level, including atom-probe tomography.”

Researchers analysed the crystals on an atomic basis, allowing them to count how many of them had seen radioactive decay.

“Radiometric dating works a little bit like an hourglass,” said the Field Museum’s Philipp Heck, the study’s senior author.

An article describing the work, ‘4.46 Ga zircons anchor chronology of lunar magma ocean’, is published in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters.


The original article contains 402 words, the summary contains 131 words. Saved 67%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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