Earth Is Literally Making The Moon Rust
Shuai LiFollowing the observations of a 2008 study, scientists have confirmed this year that the Moon is rusting at its poles.
Another wild piece of space news from 2020 was the discovery that the Moon is rusting at its poles — and scientists say that it’s Earth’s fault.
Rusting results when iron and oxygen react with one another in the presence of water or moisture. But the Moon lacks an atmosphere like Earth’s, which should make it impossible for the Moon to produce any oxygen that would create rust on its surface.
Yet in 2008, an assistant researcher named Shuai Li at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa’s Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, began to notice some unusual lunar activity. While examining the poles more closely, he found that they had areas of iron-rich rocks that resembled those produced by hematite, an iron oxide mineral found naturally on Earth.
It was a puzzling discovery.
PixabayScientists think that the rusting Moon may be caused by Earth’s extended magnetic field.
“At first, I totally didn’t believe it,” said Abigail Fraeman, a co-author of the new study and a planetary geoscientist at JPL. “It shouldn’t exist based on the conditions present on the Moon. But since we discovered water on the Moon, people have been speculating that there could be a greater variety of minerals than we realize if that water had reacted with rocks.”
Researchers hypothesize that the Moon has been receiving a supply of oxygen from the Earth through an extension of the magnetic field that encircles the planet called a “magnetotail.”
Moreover, the magnetotail could potentially be transferring layers of the Earth’s protective atmosphere around the Moon, shielding it from the sun’s solar winds which would prevent the process of oxidation. It’s a stunning space news revelation that could hint at a greater relationship between the Earth and Moon.
“This discovery will reshape our knowledge about the Moon’s polar regions,” Li said. “Earth may have played an important role in the evolution of the Moon’s surface.”
The paper was published in the journal Science Advances. It may be the first of many space news stories concerning this bizarre phenomenon.
