The South Pole-Aitkin basin, with a diameter of around 250 miles, located on the far side of the moon, has been given an age revision. This was made possible with the help of a method developed at the Natural History Museum, according to a press release from the museum.
The analysis of a moon meteorite's composition has been compared to the rocks within the basin, and since there were many chemical similarities, the connection could be made and the new age determined.
"The implications of our findings stretch far beyond the moon. We can use what we've learned about the moon to give us clues about the conditions on Earth during the same time period," says Martin Whitehouse, professor at the Department of Geoscience at the Natural History Museum, in the press release.
The researchers behind the study come from institutions in Manchester, Beijing, Portsmouth, and the Natural History Museum in Stockholm, and it has been published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Corrected: In an earlier version of the text, there was an incorrect description of the size of the moon crater.
