A half century later, crystals of the mineral zircon inside a coarse-grained igneous rock fragment collected by Schmitt are giving scientists a deeper understanding about the moon's formation and the precise age of Earth's celestial partner.
This blasted magma - molten rock - into space, forming a debris disk that orbited Earth and coalesced into the moon.
"I love the fact that this study was done on a sample that was collected and brought to Earth 51 years ago.
"Interestingly, all the oldest minerals found on Earth, Mars and the moon are zircon crystals.
The new study used atom probe tomography to determine there were no complications involving the lead atoms, confirming the age of the crystals.
Persons:
Will Dunham WASHINGTON, Harrison Schmitt, Eugene Cernan, Schmitt, wouldn't, cosmochemist Philipp Heck, Bidong Zhang, Heck, Zhang, Jennika Greer, Will Dunham, Lisa Shumaker
Organizations:
Field Museum, University of Chicago, UCLA, Space Center, University of Glasgow, NASA
Locations:
Chicago, Houston, Scotland