Astronomers have made a new astonishing discovery about the evolution of the Moon as experts have concurred with the estimation that it came into being about 4.5 billion years ago.
The new study —published in the journal Nature Geoscience — found that more than 4.2 billion years ago, the Earth’s natural satellite turned itself inside out and eventually formed the outermost surface of it.
The experts analysed the samples from the Moon’s rock collected by the Apollo mission and by that, they may have solved the mystery revolving around the lunar composition.
LPL associate professor and co-author of the study, Jeff Andrews-Hanna, said in a statement: “Our moon literally turned itself inside out, but there has been little physical evidence to shed light on the exact sequence of events during this critical phase of lunar history, and there is a lot of disagreement in the details of what went down — literally.”
The experts also found a high concentration of titanium in the basaltic lava rock samples.
The observations from the satellites also showed the titanium-rich volcanic rocks located at the lunar nearside, baffling scientists about how they got there.
A team of the University of Arizona team believed that when the Moon came into being, it was covered with a hot magma ocean, which gradually cooled down and formed the outer layers such as crust and mantle.
“Because these heavy minerals are denser than the mantle underneath, they create a gravitational instability, and you would expect this layer to sink deeper into the moon’s interior,” said lead researcher Weigang Liang.
