The Moon was volcanically active longer than thought, new space rocks show

[FfFfFfFF 58,120]

A chemical analysis of the volcanic rocks confirms that the moon remained volcanically active far longer that its size would suggest possible, researchers report online.

An international group of researchers found that the rocks formed 2 billion years ago, around when multicellular life first evolved on Earth. That makes them the youngest moon rocks ever collected.

The moon formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago. Lunar rocks from the Apollo and Soviet missions of the late 1960s and 70s revealed that volcanism on the moon was commonplace for the first billion or so years of its existence, with flows lasting for millions, if not hundreds of millions, of years.

Given its size, scientists thought that the moon started cooling off around 3 billion years ago. Yet the moon’s smoother spots seemed to suggest that volcanism had persisted past the moon’s early history. 

 

Source - https://www.sciencenews.org/article/moon-rocks-china-lunar-lander-sample-lava-volcano

[Guest]

Wow. Now this was something I had absolutely no idea of!!