Lunar dust gathered by the Apollo 17 astronauts in the 1970s has led to a groundbreaking revelation: the moon’s age is 40 million years greater than previously thought.

During their mission on December 11, 1972, NASA astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, following their moon landing, collected a variety of rocks and lunar dust.

In a recent examination of these lunar samples, zircon crystals were identified and dated to be 4.46 billion years old, CNN reported.

This contrasts with earlier estimates that placed the moon’s age, attributed to a colossal celestial collision, at 4.425 billion years.

These significant findings were presented in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters on Monday.

Written by staff