×
GreekEnglish

×
  • Politics
  • Diaspora
  • World
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Cooking
Saturday
07
Feb 2026
weather symbol
Athens 16°C
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • World
  • Diaspora
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Mediterranean Cooking
  • Weather
Contact follow Protothema:
Powered by Cloudevo
> World

The Moon, which seems pretty old, is practically a baby

Cute, right?

Newsroom July 16 01:34

The moon, it turns out, is much younger than scientists previously thought.

Researchers from the German Aerospace Center and the University of Münster have released new estimates for the age of the moon. According to their modeling, it’s 85 million years younger than current estimates suggest.

Scientists have long estimated the moon formed some 4.51 billion years ago when a Mars-sized object (which we’ve since dubbed Theia) smashed into Earth. At the time, the guts of our newly formed planet were beginning to take shape.

The collision tore away a chunk of Earth’s mantle and flung it into orbit, where it morphed into a massive ring of dust and rock that began to clump together. “From this, the moon was formed in a short time, probably in just a few thousand years,” planetary scientist and study coauthor Doris Breuer, of the German Aerospace Center, said in a statement.

Breuer and her colleagues revealed in their paper, published in the journal Science Advances, that this infamous impact happened around 4.425 billion years ago, give or take about 25 million years. In the aftermath of the impact, the moon looked a lot like Mustafar—a molten marble with a piping hot magma ocean more than 600 miles deep.

>Related articles

The Commission targets TikTok for its addictive design that harms children

“True friend, fighter & winner”: Trump openly supports Orban ahead of the Hungarian elections

What qualities does a good astronaut have for the mission to the Moon? The requirements of NASA

See Also:

ND leads SYRIZA by over 20% in latest poll

Read more: yahoo

Ask me anything

Explore related questions

#astronomy#astrophysics#earth#moon#physics#planet#satellite#science#solar system#technology#world
> More World

Follow en.protothema.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news

See all the latest News from Greece and the World, the moment they happen, at en.protothema.gr

> Latest Stories

Thessaloniki’s Flyover: Greece’s largest bridge project nears completion, set to revolutionize urban mobility

February 7, 2026

What kind of tourism do we want – Experts from around the world speak out: “Stop issuing permits that will turn Greece into Costa del Sol

February 7, 2026

Vinyl records make a comeback: Record stores return as an aesthetic choice, not just nostalgia

February 7, 2026

Winter Olympics: As a tribute to Giorgio Armani, Mariah Carey rocked San Siro

February 7, 2026

Weather: Spring in winter with temperatures up to 22 degrees at the weekend

February 7, 2026

Boos for Israel and JD Vance at Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

February 7, 2026

Ministry of Finance: Six privatisations and five tax cuts in focus for 2026

February 7, 2026

US Ambassador begins tours across Greece: From Zappeion to Washington, the vertical corridor

February 7, 2026
All News

> Culture

Vinyl records make a comeback: Record stores return as an aesthetic choice, not just nostalgia

A new generation of collectors: From teens to seniors

February 7, 2026

Epstein case rocks Hollywood: Jay Z, Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, and the “Interesting girls of Copenhagen”

February 6, 2026

Athens’ journey from the 1821 Revolution to World War II told through three documentaries

February 6, 2026

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center: Hosts a love run on Valentine’s day

February 6, 2026

Researchers reconstruct the scents of ancient civilizations

February 5, 2026
Homepage
PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY COOKIES POLICY TERM OF USE
Powered by Cloudevo
Copyright © 2026 Πρώτο Θέμα