A new study by geologists in Canada and the United States suggests a precious metal deposit under the moon.
Dr. James Brennan, a professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Dalhousie University in Canada and the lead author of the study, said he and his fellow researchers were able to draw parallels between the mineral deposits on Earth and those on the moon.
Brennan worked with geologists from Carleton University and the Geophysical Laboratory in Washington, DC, to prepare the study, published in the British journal Nature Geoscience.
"We were able to bind sulfur content in lunar volcanic rocks with the presence of iron sulfide deep in the moon," said Brennan.
Scientists have long speculated that the moon formed after its separation from Earth, the impact of a planet-sized object, 4.5 billion years ago. Because of the common history of the Moon and Earth, specialists see similarities in their composition, but early measurements of the concentrations of precious metals in lunar rocks conducted in 2006 showed unusually low levels, which puzzled scientists for more than a decade about the reason for the low concentrations.
Brennan believes that these low levels reflect a general depletion of precious metals in the entire moon. The new research, funded with the support of Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council, provides an explanation of low levels and adds valuable information to the moon's composition.
"Our results show that sulfur in the lunar rocks is evidence of the presence of iron sulfide in the rocky interior of the moon, where precious metals remained during lava formation," Brennan said.