A new study suggests that mysterious swirling patterns observed on the surface of the Moon may be related to underground magma activity.
“moon spins” observed on the Moon show a spiral pattern created by magnetized rocks deflecting or redirecting solar storm particles that constantly bombard the moon. Moonstones that fall into lunar vortices remain light-colored, while neighboring rocks that do not—and have therefore been hit by charged particles from sun — They appear to undergo a chemical reaction that makes them appear darker, according to a statement from Washington University in St. Louis.
However given Moon it has no classics magnetic field the researchers themselves had to look for another source that could magnetize the moon’s eddies, which can stretch for hundreds of kilometers in some areas, according to images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
“Impacts could cause these types of magnetic anomalies. But there are certain eddies where we’re just not sure how an impact could create that shape and that size thing,” Michael J. Krawczynski, study co-author and collaborator. Professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, he said in a statement. “Another theory is that you have lava underground that is slowly cooling down magnetic field and creating a magnetic anomaly.”
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“Impacts could cause these types of magnetic anomalies. But there are certain eddies where we’re just not sure how an impact could create that shape and that size thing,” Michael J. Krawczynski, study co-author and collaborator. Professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, he said in a statement. “Another theory is that you have lava underground that is slowly cooling down magnetic field and creating a magnetic anomaly.”
Using a mineral called ilmenite, which is abundant on the moon, the researchers aimed to replicate the magnetization effect. They studied the reaction between ilmenite and various combinations of atmospheric chemistry and magmatic cooling speed to form metallic iron particles that can be magnetized.
“Our analog experiments showed that under lunar conditions we could create the magnetizable material we needed. So it’s likely that these vortices are caused by subsurface magmaKrawczynski said in a statement that the underground magma must be high in titanium for the results to be true. meteorites and in the lunar samples from Apollo. But all of these samples are surface lava flows, and our study shows that subsurface cooling should greatly enhance these metal-forming reactions.”
Understanding the origin of lunar vortices offers new clues to the processes that shaped the lunar surface and the history of the Moon’s magnetic field. NASA plans to send a rover to a lunar vortex called Reiner Gamma in 2025 as part of Lunar Vertex Missionallowing researchers to examine these surface features up close.
“If we could just drill down, we could see if this reaction is happening,” Krawczynski said in a statement. “That would be great, but it’s not possible right now. We’re stuck on the surface right now.”
Their findings were posted on May 20 in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.