New research has scientists now thinking volcanic activity ended on the moon much later than later than previously believed, possibly during the Dinosaur Age.
According to Space.com, NASA used information gathered with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and determined that the moon's latest volcanic activity may have been 100 million years ago. Scientists previously believed lava had last flowed on the lunar surface some one billion years ago.
Sarah Braden, a recent graduate of Arizona State University' School of Earth and Space Exploration, led the study published in the journal Nature.
"Finding previously unknown geologic features on the lunar surface is extremely exciting," Braden said in a press release.
The study centers around a volcanic deposit known as Ina, which was once photographed by the Apollo 15 astronauts. Ina appeared too young to be associated with the idea that the moon's volcanic activity ended sometime between one billion and 3.5 billion years ago. Orbiting the moon since 2009, the LRO spied more irregular mare patches similar to Ina and the study authors then worked to age them.
"The existence and young age of the irregular mare patches provides a new constraint for models of the lunar interior's thermal evolution," Braden said. "The lunar mantle had to remain hot enough for long enough to provide magma for the small-volume eruptions."
Study co-author Mark Robinson, an ASU colleague of Braden's and the LRO camera's principal investigator, said in a statement from NASA that the results could just be the beginning and more work must be done on the matter.
"These young volcanic features are prime targets for future exploration, both robotic and human," he said.
