It turns out the moon is older than many scientists suspected: a ripe 4.51 billion years old. A research team reported Wednesday that the moon formed within 60 million years of the birth of the solar system. She noted that the moon holds "so much magic ... the key to understand how our beautiful Earth formed and evolved." The moon was created from debris knocked off from Earth, which itself is thought to be roughly 4.54 billion years old. Some of the eight zircon samples were used in a previous study, also conducted at UCLA, that utilized more limited techniques.

Source: ABC News January 11, 2017 19:16 UTC