Researchers have concluded that the Moon formed nearly 100 million years after the start of the solar system/
The team of researchers from France, Germany and the United States simulated the growth of the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) from a disk of thousands of planetary building blocks orbiting the Sun.
By analyzing the growth history of the Earth-like planets from 259 simulations, the scientists discovered a relationship between the time the Earth was impacted by a Mars-sized object to create the Moon and the amount of material added to the Earth after that impact.
Augmenting the computer simulation with details on the mass of material added to the Earth by accretion after the formation of the Moon revealed a relationship that works much like a clock to date the Moon-forming event.
This is the first "geologic clock" in early solar system history that does not rely on measurements and interpretations of the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei to determine age.
From these geochemical measurements, the newly established clock dates the Moon to 95 plus and minus 32 million years after the beginning of the solar system.
The paper has been published in journal Nature.
