Researchers find the moon is 'rusting': scientists are at a loss

A recently published study notes that the Moon is “rusting,” a discovery that has experts baffled. Writes about this Fox News.

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The study, published in Science Advances, notes that rust could be the result of water being found on the moon, but this is still shocking given the lack of oxygen and water on Earth's celestial satellite.

“This is very puzzling,” lead study author Shuai Li of the University of Hawaii said in a statement.

Lee was studying data from the JPL Moon Mineralogy Mapper when the researcher learned that the instrument had detected "spectra—or light reflected from surfaces—that showed the Moon's poles had a completely different composition than the rest of the moon," the statement said.

According to the study abstract, the polar surfaces showed spectra corresponding to the mineral hematite (Fe2O3).

“Although oxidative processes have been suggested to operate on the lunar surface to form ferric iron-containing minerals, definitive detection of lunar-forming minerals remains elusive,” the scientists wrote in the study abstract. “Our data analysis shows that hematite, an iron mineral, is present at high latitudes on the Moon, primarily associated with the eastern and equatorial sides of topographic highs, and is more abundant on the near side than on the far side.”

Rust, also known as iron oxide, gives Mars its reddish color.

“At first I didn’t believe it at all. It should not exist based on the conditions existing on the Moon,” added study co-author and NASA JPL planetary geophysicist Abigail Freiman. “But ever since we discovered water on the Moon, people have speculated that there might be a greater variety of minerals than we think if that water reacted with rocks.”

On the subject: Back to the moon: NASA talked about the details of a space mission

With no atmosphere to provide oxygen to the moon and the solar wind to deliver hydrogen, which must act as a "reductant" to prevent oxidation, scientists have no idea where the rust came from. However, they believe it could have come from Earth, given that the Moon does indeed have "traces of oxygen" thanks to the Earth's magnetic field.

The discovered hematite is not adjacent to the water ice that was found on the moon, which adds even more questions. Scientists have suggested that dust particles falling on the moon could release water molecules to interact with hematite, but further research is needed to see if this is correct.

“It’s possible that small pieces of water and exposure to dust particles lead to rust,” Freiman explained.

“This discovery will change our knowledge of the polar regions of the Moon,” Li added. “The Earth may have played an important role in the evolution of the lunar surface.”

On the subject: The moon shrinks and trembles: what is happening and whether to worry

The moon has been a source of admiration for humanity for centuries, and after the Apollo space missions in the mid-20th century, human knowledge of a celestial satellite has expanded significantly.

Scientists recently learned that the moon loses water when it collides with meteoroids, according to a study published in March 2019.

NASA's ARTEMIS mission also showed that the solar wind strongly affects the surface of the Moon and exposes it to solar radiation, leaving scars on the surface that look like "sunburn" due to the weak magnetic field of the Moon.

A separate study, published in August 2019, showed that the Moon was 100 million years older than previously thought, based on the findings of an analysis of lunar rocks made by Apollo astronauts.

A study published in January 2019 showed that Apollo astronauts could have found and excavated a 4,1 billion-year-old chunk of Earth on the moon.

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