Finding Earth’s oldest rock is pretty cool. Finding it on the Moon is wild.
Here’s how this happened. Back in 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts brought back pieces from the Moon.
Scientists have recently been analyzing this rock and found it contains quartz, feldspar and zircon. All these elements are commonly found on Earth, but not the Moon.
They mapped out the creation of Earth when asteroids were bombarding the surface. It appears likely debris was thrown from Earth’s surface into space, and potentially landed on the Moon.
Scientist believe the rock fragments were likely buried on the Moon, then reappeared when the lunar surface was hit by other impact events.
There is still room for debate so the research will continue.
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