A UCLA-led research team reports that the moon is at least 4.51 billion years old, or 40 million to 140 million years older than scientists previously thought. After reanalyzing rocks and soil collected by Apollo 14 mission in 1971, researchers suggest that the moon is actually a lot older than originally estimated. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere 30/30 Chandra Observatory Sees a Heart in the Darkness This Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of the young star cluster NGC 346 highlights a heart-shaped cloud of 8 million-degree Celsius gas in the central region

The moon was formed within just 60 million years of the birth of the solar system, according to the new research. Moon likely formed more than 4 billion years ago, scientists say

The Moon is much older than previously thought and likely formed more than four billion years ago, scientists in the US have found. Led by Melanie Barboni – a professor from the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences at UCLA – the research team conducted uranium-lead dating on fragments of the Moon rocks that were brought back by the Apollo 14 astronauts. Epic crash vaporised baby Earth – and so the moon was born

Melanie Barboni from the University of California, Los Angeles and colleagues analysed the chemistry of eight zircon grains in rock and soil, picked up during the 1971 moon mission, and found they suggest the moon was mostly solidified around 4.51 billion years ago. McKeegan said those rocks indicated the date of some other events, “but not the age of the moon.”

The UCLA researchers are continuing to study zircons brought back by the Apollo astronauts to study the early history of the moon. Ms Barboni said she is studying more zircons from Apollo 14 samples, but does not expect the findings to change her estimate of 4.51 billion years for the moon's age – possibly extending it to 4.52 billion years at the most. She and her colleagues — whose work appeared Wednesday in the journal Science Advances — are eager to learn more about the moon's history and, in turn, the evolution of early Earth and the entire solar system. According to this theory, the Moon was created from a fiery cataclysm produced by a collision between the Earth with a Mars-sized object (named Theia) roughly 100 million years after the formation of primordial Earth.
A UCLA research team, analyzing lunar minerals brought back during the Apollo program, reports that the moon is at least 4.51 billion years old, up to 150 million years older than previous estimates.