One more clue to the Moon's origin

Humankind has maintained an enduring fascination with the Moon.

Over the course of nearly five centuries, researchers put forward numerous, much debated theories as to how the Moon was formed.

Now, geochemists, cosmochemists, and petrologists at ETH Zurich shed new light on the Moon's origin story.

In a study just published in the journal, Science Advances, the research team reports findings that show that the Moon inherited the indigenous noble gases of helium and neon from Earth's mantle.

The discovery adds to the already strong constraints on the currently favoured "Giant Impact" theory that hypothesizes the Moon was formed by a massive collision between Earth and another celestial body.

Meteorites from the Moon to Antarctica During her doctoral research at ETH Zurich, Patrizia Will analysed six samples of lunar meteorites from an Antarctic collection, obtained from NASA. The meteorites consist of basalt rock that formed when magma welled up from the interior of the Moon and cooled quickly.

Their findings strongly support that the Moon inherited noble gases indigenous to the Earth.

"Finding solar gases, for the first time, in basaltic materials from the Moon that are unrelated to any exposure on the lunar surface was such an exciting result," says Will.

Busemann comments, "While such gases are not necessary for life, it would be interesting to know how some of these noble gases survived the brutal and violent formation of the moon. Such knowledge might help scientists in geochemistry and geophysics to create new models that show more generally how such most volatile elements can survive planet formation, in our solar system and beyond."

SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter$5 Billed Monthly paypal only Helga and Zohar are ready for their flight around the Moon Cologne, Germany Aug 11, 2022.