🚀 Age of lunar surfaces heavily revised

2024-02-08 05:00:10

One of the major scientific results of the lunar sample return missions (Apollo, Luna, Chang’e) was the establishment of a chronology model making it possible to deduce the age of surfaces from the density of craters. observed.

This model currently constitutes the only tool available to date the surfaces of the Solar system (The solar system is a planetary system composed of a star, the…), thus making it possible to specify the temporality of the major events responsible for their geological evolution. However, the majority of chronology models assume a homogeneous cratering rate over the entire surface (A surface generally refers to the surface layer of an object. The term a…) lunar (For namesakes, see Pierrot Lunar, a work of vocal music by Arnold Schönberg.).

Asymmetry of the lunar cratering rate. The black and yellow dots symbolize the terrain sampled by the Apollo (A), Luna (L) and Chang’e-5 (CE) missions.
© A. L once more et al. (2024)

However, the synchronicity of the lunar orbit around (Around is the name that the avian nomenclature in French (updated) gives…) from Terre (Earth is the third planet in the Solar System in order of distance…) and the orbital distribution of the impactors call into question the hypothesis of a flux (The word flux (from the Latin fluxus, flow) generally designates a set of elements…) homogeneous lunar impact. What is the intensity and consequences of heterogeneity of the impact flow on the measurement of the age of lunar surfaces? This is precisely what a team of research (Scientific research primarily refers to all actions undertaken with a view to…) international, in which the CNRS (The National Center for Scientific Research, better known by its acronym CNRS, is the largest…) Terre & Universe (The Universe is the totality of everything that exists and the laws that govern it.) is involved, just established.

Scientists have discovered that the rate of cratering on the Moon varies by a factor of ~1.8 between different regions. The consequence on the interpretation of lunar samples? The regions from which these rocks come would therefore not have recorded the same impact rate and the chronology systems of the bodies of the Solar System are therefore incorrect. The researchers then used this variation in cratering rate to recalibrate the lunar timeline.

This new model modifies the age of lunar surfaces deduced from crater counts for decades by up to 30%. As a result, our vision of the temporality of the Moon’s geological activity might be revised, All (The whole understood as the whole of what exists is often interpreted as the world or…) like the chronologies of other planetary bodies such as Mercury and Mars, which are calibrated to that of the Moon. Finally, the future missions ofsampling (Sampling is the selection of a part from a whole. This is an important concept…) lunar such as Artemis or Chang’e-6 will make it possible to clarify this chronology for the oldest periods, more than 3.5 billion years ago.

References:
Anthony L once more, Hadrien A.R. Devillepoix, Pierre Vernazza, Darrel Robertson, Mikael Granvik, Petr Pokorny, Anthony Ozerov, Patrick M. Shober, Laurent Jorda, Konstantinos Servis, John H. Fairweather, Yoann Quesnel, Gretchen K. Benedix
Recalibration of the lunar chronology due to spatial cratering-rate variability
Icarus, Volume 411, 2024.

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