According to Sky News - a British television news service, atoms found in zircon crystals have undergone radioactive decay - a process in which protons and neutrons are emitted. Scientists have ...

When magma cools, the zircon minerals crystalize, and the bits of uranium in them turn into lead through radioactive decay.

Hafnium and lutetium help determine when a crust formed over the moon’s liquid mantle while the radioactive decay of uranium to lead pinpoints when the zircon crystallized. Previous analysis of ...