Moon may be younger than thought, study says

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Source:  Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times
Excerpt: The moon may be 200 million years younger than widely believed, according to a new analysis of a rock brought back to Earth in 1972 by Apollo 16 astronauts. Or, if not, the moon may never have had the magma ocean that scientists think covered its surface soon after it formed. …an international team of scientists decided to use sophisticated techniques to better test a sample collected by the Apollo 16 mission … a about 4.36 billion years, which surprised the scientists. "We all looked at one another and laughed," said lead author Lars Borg, a geochemist …. If that is correct, it means the moon's magma ocean formed — and cooled — more recently than scientists have generally thought …. This also could mean that the great impact that separated the moon from Earth happened more recently too.

 www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-moon-age-20110818,0,4380476.story

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