Moon and Earth May Be Younger Than Originally Thought

The common estimate of the moon's age is as old as 4.5 billion years old (roughly the same age as the solar system) as

determined by mineralogy and chemical analysis of moon rocks gathered during the Apollo missions.But now analysing three isotopic systems, including the elements lead, samarium and neodymium found in ancient lunar rocks, and determined that the moon could be much younger than originally estimated. In fact, its age may be 4.36 billion years

old.The new research has implications for the age of Earth as well. The common belief is that the moon formed from a giant impact into Earth and then solidified from Magma.

This is in stark contrast to a planet like Mars, which is argued to have formed around 4.53 billion years ago. If the age we report is from one of the first formed lunar rocks, then the moon is about 165 million years younger than Mars and about 200 million years younger than large asteroids."

The isotopic measurements were made by taking samples of ferroan anorthosite (FAN), a type of moon crustal rock,

which is considered to represent the oldest lunar crustal rock type.