A new study led by a geoscientist at Brown University recently proposed a new explanation for the magnetic mystery of the Moon.
A ScienceDaily report said that according to the researchers, their study presents that formations of giant rocks through the mantle of the Moon could have generated the type of "interior convection" that produces strong magnetic fields.
This process could have resulted into sporadically strong magnetic fields for the first billion years of the history of the moon.
The rocks' analysis showed that some appeared to have formed in the existence of a strong magnetic field, one that rivaled the strength of Earth. However, it was not clear how the body, with a size similar to a Moon, could have produced a magnetic field that strong.
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Picture taken 20 July 1969 of astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot walking on the surface of the moon near the leg of the Lunar Module (ML) "Eagle" during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA).
Source of a Lasting Mystery
Rocks' return to this planet during the Apollo program of NASA from 1968 to 1972 has provided lots of information about the history of the Moon. However, for quite some time now, they have also been the source of a lasting mystery.
According to assistant professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences Alexander Evans, from Brown University, the manner magnetic fields are generated by planetary cores explains that a body of the size of the Moon needs to be able to produce a field that's as strong as this planet.
Evans, who's co-author of the study published in Nature Anatomy, with Stanford University's Sonia Tikoo added, although instead of thinking about "how to power a strong magnetic field" continuously for billions of years. There could be a way to intermittently generate a high-intensity field.
The co-author also said their model presents how that is possible, and it is constant with what is known about the interior of the Moon.
Formation of the Moon's Crust
In a recent EurekAlert! report, it was specified that scientists have revealed how a "slushy ocean of magma's freezing" may be accountable for the composition of the crust of the Moon.
The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and the Ecole nomale supérieure dy Lyon, have suggested a new "crystallization" model, where crystals stayed suspended in liquid magma for hundreds of millions of years as the so-called "lunar slush" froze and turned solid.
Over a half-century ago, Apollo 11 astronauts gathered specimens from the lunar Highlands. These huge, pale regions of the Moon, which the naked eye can clearly see, are composed of comparatively light rocks also known as "anorthosites," which are formed early in the history of the Moon from 4.3 billion to 4.5 billion years back.
A Better Picture of the Moon's Early Evolution
With this new research, Evans said the new model can explain both the variability and intensity observed in Apollo samples, something that no other model has done.
More so, continued Evans, it provides the researchers with some time constraints on the foundering of the titanium material, giving a better picture of the early evolution of the Moon.
Essentially, the notion is quite testable, as well, explained by the study's co-author. It suggests that "there should have been a weak magnetic background" on the moon that was disrupted by such high-strength occurrences.
That should have been obvious in the Apollo collection, this report specified. Whereas the strong magnetic signatures in the samples of Apollo stuck out similar to a sore thumb, no one has actually searched for weaker signatures, Evans said.
Such weak signatures' existence, along with the strong ones, would give this new notion a major improvement, which could finally put the magnetic mystery of the Moon to rest.
Related information about the mystery of the formation of Moon is shown on NBC News's YouTube video below:
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Check out more news and information on Moon in Science Times.
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