![]() Therefore, the simplest interpretation is that the sample came from Earth. It would require the sample to have formed at tremendous depths, in the lunar mantle, where very different rock compositions are anticipated. It is possible that the sample is not of terrestrial origin, but instead crystallized on the Moon, however, that would require conditions never before inferred from lunar samples. “It is an extraordinary find that helps paint a better picture of early Earth and the bombardment that modified our planet during the dawn of life,” says Dr. Chemical analysis of the rock fragment shows it crystallized in a terrestrial-like oxidized system, at terrestrial temperatures, rather than in the reducing and higher temperature conditions characteristic of the Moon. The result of their investigation is a 2 gram fragment of rock composed of quartz, feldspar, and zircon, all commonly found on Earth and highly unusual on the Moon. Led by Research Scientist Jeremy Bellucci and Professor Alexander Nemchin, team members working at the Swedish Museum of Natural History and Curtin University in Australia rose to the challenge. Kring, a Universities Space Research Association (USRA) scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), to challenge them to locate a piece of Earth on the Moon. The team developed techniques for locating impactor fragments in the lunar regolith, which prompted CLSE Principal Investigator Dr. The rock was subsequently mixed with other lunar surface materials into one sample. This impact jettisoned material through Earth’s primitive atmosphere, into space, where it collided with the surface of the Moon (which was three times closer to Earth than it is now) about 4 billion years ago. The research about this possible relic from the Hadean Earth is published today in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.Īn international team of scientists associated with the Center for Lunar Science and Exploration (CLSE), part of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, found evidence that the rock was launched from Earth by a large impacting asteroid or comet. A lunar sample returned by the Apollo 14 astronauts may contain a bit of Earth from about 4 billion years ago. Scientists may have discovered the oldest Earth rock ever-on the Moon.
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