The Moon’s rock was formed 3.5 billion years ago from a unique type of magma, scientists say.
Samples brought back to Earth were studied by an international team.
Their high-temperature experiments with molten rocks and analyses of the samples show the lunar substance was born deep within the Moon, then erupted over its surface 3.5 billion years ago.
The Earth is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old, with its only satellite slightly younger at 4.46 billion years old.
Iron in the lunar magma was exchanged with magnesium in the surrounding rock.
The University of Bristol’s Tim Elliott notes in the journal Nature Geoscience that volcanic rocks burst forth in “an ‘avalanche’ of an unstable, planetary-scale crystal pile created by the cooling of a primordial magma ocean”.
The Bristol scientists worked with researchers from the University of Munster in Germany.
