NASA findings suggest more metal on Moon than thought, could aid lunar formation theories

For a long time, it has been considered that Moon was formed as a result of a collision between a Mars-sized protoplanet and young Earth, leing to a chemical composition that closely resembles Earth. However, new findings from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA’s robotic craft, have evidence of a higher amount of metal than earlier thought.

rocks from bright plains of Moon’s surface contain a smaller amount of metal-bearing minerals compared to Earth which indicates impact with protoplanet occurred after Earth h fully differentiated into a core, mantle, and crust. But large, darker plains of Moon, called maria, have richer metal-bearing minerals than many rocks on Earth.

discrepancy in metal amount has led to numerous questions and hyposes and left scientists wondering how much protoplanet may have contributed to it. According to NASA, Mini-RF team, which maps lunar poles and searches for water ice, found a curious pattern that could le to an answer.

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researchers sought to measure dielectric constant, a number that compares relative abilities of material and vacuum of to transmit electric field, within lunar soil piled on crater floors in Moon’s rrn hemisphere. team observed that dielectric constant increased with size of crater. NASA said that for craters approximately 2 to 5 kilometres wide, dielectric constant of material steily increased as craters grew larger. On or hand, property remained constant for craters 5 to 20 kilometres wide.

'Exciting result'

Since dielectric properties are directly linked to concentration of se metal minerals, researchers argued that increasing dielectric constant of dust in larger craters could be result of meteors excavating iron and titanium oxides that lie below surface. If hyposis is to be believed, only first few hundred meters of Moon’s surface is scant in iron and titanium oxides and re’s a stey increase in metal amount below surface.

“This exciting result from Mini-RF shows that even after 11 years in operation at Moon, we are still making new discoveries about ancient history of our nearest neighbor,” ah Petro, LRO project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Flight Center in Greenbelt, said in a statement.

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