Lunar clock reset: 'Man in the Moon' could be 200 million years older than previously thought

Scientists have proposed a reset of the lunar clock after re-evaluating impact craters on the moon's surface, indicating that certain features, such as the iconic "Man in the Moon" formation, could be 200 million years older than previously believed.

How would this clock reset impact everything we know about the moon?

As per a report in Space.com, the new dating system has implications on humanity’s understanding of the evolution of the lunar surface. It will also shed light on the early history of the solar system, that is characterised by heavenly bodies like the moon and Earth being subjected to intense bombardment by space rocks.

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The research involved a reassessment of two methods of dating the lunar surface: counting the number of impact craters caused by space rocks and analysing moon rocks collected by the Apollo missions.

While traditionally, these methods have yielded different results, particularly for the ages of heavily cratered and mountainous lunar highlands, to “reconcile” the differences, the researchers correlated individually dated Apollo samples with the number of craters in their respective areas.

Professor Stephanie Werner of the University of Oslo explained their methodology during a talk at the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference in Lyon.

As per Werney, "It was decided that we had to reconcile these differences, and that meant correlating individually dated Apollo samples to the number of craters in the sample site surrounding area — in effect, resetting the crater clock."

"We also correlated them against spectroscopy data from various moon missions, especially the Indian Chandrayaan-1, to be sure which Apollo sample belongs to the surface in which we counted craters," she added.

The study was presented at the Goldschmidt Conference in Lyon, France, and has been accepted for publication in the Planetary Science Journal.

What will be affected by this clock reset?

As per the team, this reset will not change the estimate of the moon’s age — around 4.53 billion years. However, it does change the age of all the areas of the lunar surface, and not in a uniform manner. This will mean that the older regions experience the most significant shifts in age.

For instance, the Imbrium Basin, created by a massive asteroid impact, was previously estimated to be around 3.9 billion years old. The revised dating places the impact and the basin's formation approximately 4.1 billion years ago.

"This is an important difference. It allows us to push back in time an intense period of bombardment from space, which we now know took place before extensive volcanic activity that formed the 'Man in the moon' patterns — the mare volcanic plains, including Mare Imbrium," said Werner.

"As this happened on the moon, the Earth was almost certain to have also suffered this earlier bombardment too."

However, unlike Moon, the Earth, has a masked impact record due to geological processes like tectonic plate movement.

Thankfully, the moon's geologically inactive nature has preserved the record of impacts on its surface, which makes it an invaluable source for studying the effects of space rock bombardment minus the influence of geological churning.

(With inputs from agencies)

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