Jaw Drop at NASA: The Moon is Rusty

(Reporter)
– Rust – on the moon? It shouldn’t be there, but it is. Scientists say they were astonished when they discovered the rust lurking on the moon’s poles. Fox News Reports. “At first, I didn’t quite believe it. It shouldn’t exist based on conditions on the moon,” says NASA scientist Abigail Freeman, co-author. a study On the search. “But since we discovered water on the moon, people have been speculating that there could be a greater diversity of minerals than we would imagine if that water interacted with rocks.” But the moon is devoid of oxygen, and rust only forms when iron comes into contact with oxygen and water. So lead author Shuai Li spent months trying to solve the mystery with NASA scientists. CNN Reports. Their hypothesis goes like this.

Earth’s magnetic field is stretched by the solar wind pulling it so far that the moon enters its tail for several days at a time. This may happen when oxygen migrates from Earth to the moon, mixing with lunar water molecules, and forming rust on its near side. But puzzles remain: Why, for example, are small amounts of iron also forming on the far side of the moon, where Earth’s oxygen may not reach? How does moon water interact with rocks? A side bonus: This may explain why some asteroids and other airless objects have rust. NASA Reports. “This discovery will reshape our knowledge about the moon’s polar regions,” he tells me in A. Press release. “The Earth may have played an important role in the evolution of the moon’s surface.” (Meanwhile, NASA patented a cheaper method You reach the moon.)