[decimon]

New moon ping.

[Octar]

The Universe, however, is very old.

[laweeks]

These “scientists” have no more idea of the age of the moon than they do as to where Obambi was born in Kenya or where Obambi got his Soc Sec number.

[cripplecreek]

That hundred million years seems kind of inconsequential when you’re talking about more than 4 billion years.

[CygnusTheSwan]

The extraordinarily young age of this lunar sample either means that the Moon solidified significantly later than previous estimates – and therefore the moon itself is much younger than previously believed - or that this sample does not represent a crystallisation product of the original magma ocean.

Hmmm, I dunno. One sample dated and the headline claims "Moon younger than previously thought"?

Very interesting story, and congrats to the folks who did the work, but I'm leaning towards the latter in the quote above until more data is available.

[KarlInOhio]

Once we removed the contamination, we found that this sample is almost 100 million years younger than we expected,"

The team analysed the isotopes of the elements lead and neodymium to place the age of a sample of a FAN at 4.36 billion years. This figure is significantly younger than earlier estimates of the Moon’s age that range to nearly as old as the age of the solar system itself at 4.567 billion years.

So it is about 2% younger than expected. That's like Obama being a year younger than he claims. It's not a huge experimental error and it won't reform the theory of the creation of the solar system.

[HighWheeler]

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There are several significant differences in the Earth and Moon following that impact with a Mars sized object.

First off, the Earth's molten iron core is significantly larger than the proportion of iron in the rest of the known Universe. This collision explains how the Earth acquired such a high content of iron.

This combined iron core was heated up, absobing the massive energy of from the impact, and this keeps our magnetic field extremely strong. This inherent magentic shield keeps the Earth protected from deadly radiation by diverting the high speed radiation and particles to the Earth's poles.

[Publius6961]

This is the real story, in an otherwise unimpressive article :

Although the samples have been carefully stored at NASA Johnson Space Center since their return to Earth, we had to extensively pre-clean the samples using a new method to remove terrestrial lead contamination.

Which is it?
It was either carefully stored or it was contaminated. It can't be both.

As to the age theory, nothing in the article supports or excludes any of many other possible theories about the formation of the moon. Or even a hint of, if the age is different from earth's age, but was once part of it, what are the possible explanations?

There is just an unpleasant whiff of James Hansenism in the whole thing.

[Leroy S. Mort]

"Put me in, coach."

[Little Ray]

Don’t you guys read David Weber?
Its actually a camouflaged Battle Planetoid.

[GAB-1955]

This sounds like the Apollo 16 samples could have come from the postulated second moon which sort of splattered onto Luna’s surface 100 million years after both bodies were formed in orbit around the Earth. This would be evidence strengthening that hypothesis.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks decimon. Looks like a scramble to find the very first valid evidence that the Moon was formed from an impact between a Mars-sized body which no longer exists (per se) and the proto-Earth.

• When the Days Were Shorter

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[mtg]

Not that it’s all that important, but it’s highly unlikely scientists will ever be able to nail down the exact year God created the moon.

[Talisker]

Moon younger than previously thought.

Way, way, WAY younger.