The Oldest Earth Sample Discovered on the Moon
Scientists from the Australian Curtin University have found that the sample collected 50 years ago during the Apollo-14 lunar mission belongs to Earth. Experts told Asgardia Space News that the transfer of substance from the Moon to Earth and vice versa is quite possible. For instance, meteors from the Moon have been previously found on Earth.
The Curtin University study focused on lunar rock samples discovered by the third lunar has shown that one the sample that originated on Earth was propelled into space when an asteroid hit our planet billions of years ago.
The rock sample is a piece of quartz, feldspar and zircon weighing 1.8 grams, embedded in a larger chunk of rock called Big Bertha. These minerals are rarely found on the Moon, but are common on Earth.
Lunar sample 14321, also known as Big Bertha. Image: NASA
Research author Professor Alexander Nemchin from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said that the mere fact of the presence of quartz in the sample makes the find even more unusual.
“The chemistry of the zircon in this sample is very different from that of every other zircon grain ever analysed in lunar samples, and remarkably similar to that of zircons found on Earth,” said Nemchin.
Chemical analysis of the sample has shown that it was formed at a low temperature and, possibly, in the presence of water and in oxidized conditions, which makes it characteristic of Earth.
“By determining the age of the zircon found in the sample, we were able to pinpoint the age of the host rock at about four billion years old, similar to the oldest rocks on Earth,” noted Nemchin.
According to doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences of the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mikhail Ivanov, the detected sample may be the most an ancient rock from the Earth.
“Ejection of matter from Earth to the Moon is a more complex process, because Earth has a large force of gravity. To throw substance out of the planet, and so that later it hit the moon requires a big blow. Such big blows in the history of Earth happened early, about 4 billion years ago. Therefore, it is possible that the ancient remains of Earth’s crust got on the Moon,” Doctor Mikhail Ivanov told Asgardia Space News.
Ivanov also noted that new research results have no connection with the hypothesis of the formation of the Moon due to collision of a huge meteorite on Earth. The sample that may have arrived from Earth to the Moon appeared there when the Moon was already formed.
“The fact is that in the Earth-Moon system, both […] were exposed to meteorites, but already when they were formed,” Ivanov said. “Formation of the Moon, according to some hypotheses, is associated with an early collision of a body the size of Mars with proto-Earth. Then, there was a release of a substance into Earth’s orbit, and subsequently these substances formed the Moon.”
While this hypothesis is not without issues, many scientists consider it to be a fairly justified theory of the Moon’s origin.
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