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The Other Big Bang
News story originally written on November 18, 1997
Scientists just released a new estimate of the age of the Moon. This estimate claims that the Moon was formed later than previously thought.
Scientists released their findings in the Nov 7th issue of Science. "Our data indicates the moon formed within the time window of 4.52 billion to 4.50 billion years ago," University of Michigan professor Alexander Halliday said.
Their research has also led these scientists to claim that the Moon was the result of a collision between the Earth and another body (a body as large as Mars!). This "big bang" must have occurred about 50 million years after the start of the solar system (4.57 billion years ago!).
These scientists used the process of spectroscopy to make their findings. The same process was used by the Mars Pathfinder rover to analyze Martian rocks.
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