Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, he worried he might sink into the billions of years of accumulated dust on the surface. This did not happen, and creationists claim this is proof the moon is thousands of years old, not billions. What is the real reason?
鈥� Like many creationist claims, this one is easily debunked by the application of some simple logic. What is dust? Eroded rock. What erodes rock? Wind or water. What does the moon have a conspicuous absence of? An atmosphere and water.
The big surprise is not that there is so little dust on the moon, but that there is any at all.
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Alison Venugoban, Ngunnawal, ACT, Australia
鈥� Dust is formed when rocks erode and break down into smaller particles. This is mainly caused by the weather. Dust also forms on Earth when meteorites disintegrate while falling through the atmosphere. Because there is no atmosphere or water on the moon, this process takes significantly longer, if it happens at all. Dust may have been formed by erupting volcanoes, but the moon has not been active for millions, perhaps billions of years.
Kirtcho Kirtchev, London, UK