On Earth, which has constant weathering and crust recycling through plate tectonics, there is no preserved rock that is older than 4 billion years. As the assumed age of the Earth is 4.5 billion years, we can only speculate about the conditions existing during the first 500 million years, but there are preserved samples from this time period in the lunar soil. These reveal intense bombardment in the early solar system, with massive planetary changes, including the "giant impact" that created the Moon about 4.5 billion years ago. This project will focus on lunar soil collected by six Apollo missions, three Luna missions and Chang'e-5 mission. Despite the small amount, it is possible to date a number of components in the lunar soil through modern, high spatial resolution methods using an ion microprobe. By greatly expanding the inventory of dated impacts on the Moon, we will be able to address their influence on the solar system and the Earth's evolution, including its habitability.

2022

2025