Context:
New analyses indicate a ‘remelting’ surface of the Moon around 4.35 billion years ago, hiding a very older history.
Key Highlights:
- The Moon is said to be formed by the collision of Earth and a Mars-sized protoplanet in the last giant impact in the history of our planet.
- The Moon, some 4.35 billion years old, has some inconsistencies in the explanation of thermal models and other observations regarding its age.
- Evidence
- The repeated occurrence of rocks about 4.35 billion years old indicates that remelting of moon has occurred due to the evolution of the orbit.
- The remelting of the Moon is a possible explanation for the reduced numbers of impact basins formed in the early bombardment.
- About the Moon
- It is Earth’s only natural satellite and is about one-fourth the size of Earth in diameter.
- It has a surface area that’s about 1/16th of Earth’s and a mass that’s roughly 1.2% of Earth’s Mass.
