The moon mysteriously rusts, and scientists think it’s our fault

The NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology Reports that the moon is rusting It seems strange enough on the surface, but it becomes even weirder when you consider that the moon does not contain any oxygen or liquid water – the two things usually needed to turn iron-rich rocks into rust.

The puzzle begins with the solar wind, which is a stream of charged particles streaming in from the sun, bombarding the Earth and the moon with hydrogen. Hydrogen makes it difficult to form hematite. It is what is known as a reducer, meaning that it adds electrons to the material it interacts with. This is the opposite of what is needed to make hematite: for iron to rust, it requires an oxidizing agent that removes the electrons. And while the Earth has a magnetic field that shields it from this hydrogen, the Moon is not.

“It’s so baffling,” [Shuai Li of the University of Hawaii] He said. “The moon is a terrible environment for hematite to form.” So it turned to Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists Abigail Freeman and Vivienne Sun for help with twitching in M.³His data confirm his discovery of hematite.

Freeman said, “At first, I didn’t quite believe it. It shouldn’t exist based on conditions on the moon.” “But since we discovered water on the moon, people have been speculating that there could be more diversity in minerals than we would imagine if that water interacted with rocks.”

After taking a closer look, Freeman and Sun M.³The moon’s data already indicates the presence of hematite at the lunar poles. “In the end, the spectra were convincingly carrying hematite, and there was a need to explain why they were on the surface of the moon,” said Sun.

More research is needed into this strange phenomenon. But for now, their groundbreaking theory is that oxygen from Earth could stop at planet Earth magnetic fieldAlso known, without joke, as a magnetic tail – with enough momentum to travel 239,000 miles to the moon. It is possible that oxygen made the journey billions of years ago, when the moon and Earth were close together.

Current working theory also assumes that the Earth’s magnetic tail might occasionally block the currents of the solar wind from certain parts of the moon, which would carry hydrogen that would prevent the oxidation that leads to rust. And then of course, while nothing is known Liquid Water on the Moon – the third piece of the puzzle. Rust – there ice:

Lee suggests that the fast-moving dust particles regularly The moon threw It can release water particles carried on the surface, and mixed with iron in the lunar soil. The heat from these effects may increase the oxidation rate; The same dust particles may also carry water molecules, infusing them into the surface until they mix with the iron. Only during the right moments – that is, when the moon is shielded from the solar wind and the presence of oxygen – can a rust-stimulating chemical reaction take place.

The universe is wild.

The moon is rusting, and researchers want to know why [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory / California Institute of Technology]

Earth makes the moon rust [Jessie Yeung / CNN]

Photo: public domain via Bixenew