Humans have created a new geological era on the Moon

SCIENCE EDITOR

HUMANS have caused so much disturbance to the Moon that it has entered a new epoch, scientists have claimed.

More than a hundred spacecraft have landed on the Moon’s surface since the USSR set down Luna 2 in 1959, leading experts to claim the satellite is now in the “lunar anthropocene” age.

Earth is thought to have tipped from the Holocene to the Anthropocene about the time the first nuclear weapons were detonated, leaving a lasting mark on the planet’s geology.

The Moon has been in the Copernican period for around the past billion years which began when volcanic lava flows stopped.

But in a paper in anthropologists and geologists at the University of Kansas, argue Moon missions have tipped the satellite into a new era of human interference.

The scientists claim that the Lunar Anthropocene began when Luna 2 landed in 1959. “The idea is much the same as the discussion of the Anthropocene on Earth – the exploration of how much humans have impacted our planet,” said lead author Justin Holcomb, a postdoctoral researcher with the Kansas Geological Survey.

“The consensus is on Earth the Anthropocene began at some point in the past, whether hundreds of thousands of years ago or in the 1950s.

“Similarly, on the moon, we argue the Lunar Anthropocene already has commenced, but we want to prevent massive damage or a delay of its recognition until we can measure a significant lunar halo caused by human activities, which would be too late.”

It is estimated that humans have left 500,000lb of artefacts on the lunar surface, including six American flags, television equipment, and an aluminium sculpture called

There are even two golf balls from when Alan Shepard attempted putting in low gravity.