Scientists are astonished: the moon has started to rust!
The moon does not contain the two main components of the oxidation process;
Air and liquid water, so the discovery of hematite (which is classified as rust) on the surface of the moon aroused astonishment and confusion for scientists, so they explained the effect of the Earth's magnetic field.
And researchers recently published a study on the Science Advance website that analyzed data from the India Space Research Organization's Chandrayan 1 orbiter.
According to the Future Observatory of the Dubai Future Foundation, the researchers stated that the rocks in the poles of the moon have a different composition from the rest of the regions, and Shuai Li, a planetary scientist at the University of Hawaii and the lead author of the study, discovered the existence of hematite, and said in a press release, "The matter is very confusing;
The moon is an unsuitable environment for hematite to form.
The study saw that the oxidation process on the moon is due to three factors:
The first is the presence of quantities of oxygen on the moon, despite its lack of an atmosphere, that comes from our planet, to cut oxygen from the upper atmosphere through the magnetic tail for a distance of 385 thousand kilometers separating the earth and the moon.
The second factor is the arrival of hydrogen to the moon through the solar wind.
Although it should eliminate any oxidation, the magnetic tail prevents most of the solar winds from arriving during certain periods of the moon's orbit, making room for rust formation.
The third factor is the rare water molecules on the surface of the moon, and researchers assume that they may be liberated by fast dust particles that regularly fall on the moon and then mix with the iron present in the lunar soil, and the heat produced by the effects of dust particles may also increase the rate of oxidation.
And NASA seeks to reveal the secrets of the mystery, through the Artemis project, which aims to send human missions to the moon in early 2024.
"The results indicate complex chemical processes in our solar system, which we will understand better by sending future missions to the moon to test hypotheses," said Vivian Son, a researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Interesting Engineering reported.
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