@article{bf09e8cf07df4c8e9d60e8b6d0d99d89,
title = "Early formation of the Moon 4.51 billion years ago",
abstract = "Establishing the age of the Moon is critical to understanding solar system evolution and the formation of rocky planets, including Earth. However, despite its importance, the age of the Moon has never been accurately determined. We present uranium-lead dating of Apollo 14 zircon fragments that yield highly precise, concordant ages, demonstrating that they are robust against postcrystallization isotopic disturbances. Hafnium isotopic analyses of the same fragments show extremely low initial 176Hf/177Hf ratios corrected for cosmic ray exposure that are near the solar system initial value. Our data indicate differentiation of the lunar crust by 4.51 billion years, indicating the formation of the Moon within the first ~60 million years after the birth of the solar system.",
author = "Melanie Barboni and Patrick Boehnke and Brenhin Keller and Kohl, {Issaku E.} and Blair Schoene and Young, {Edward D.} and McKeegan, {Kevin D.}",
note = "Funding Information: We thank CAPTEM (Curation and Analysis Planning Team for Extraterrestrial Materials) and the Lunar Sample curators at the Johnson Space Center who made samples available for this research. We thank D. Taylor and C. Crow (University of California, Los Angeles) for originally separating and imaging the Apollo zircons; J. Hanchar for providing the synthetic zircon standards used for Hf isotopes analyses; K. Samperton for assistance measuring Lu/Hf on the Element 2 ICPMS at Princeton University; M. Grange and an anonymous reviewer for their thoughtful and helpful reviews; and K. Hodges for efficient editorial handling. This study was supported by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Emerging Worlds Program grants NNX16AD35G (to K.D.M.) and NNX15AH43G (to E.D.Y.) as well as by Swiss National Science Foundation grant P300P2_147740 (to M.B). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 The Authors, some rights reserved.",
year = "2017",
month = jan,
doi = "10.1126/sciadv.1602365",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "3",
journal = "Science advances",
issn = "2375-2548",
publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",
number = "1",
}