Scientists continue to piece together the moon’s complex history using lunar samples collected during NASA’s Apollo mission more than half a century ago.
Latest analysis of lunar dust collected by Apollo 16 astronaut A 1972 study provided a clearer picture of the effects of asteroid impacts on the moon, allowing scientists to reconstruct billions of years of lunar history. Survey results may also be helpful Upcoming manned missions Scientists say they can pinpoint valuable natural resources to build a lunar base.
Astronauts John Young, Charles Duke, and Ken Mattingly collected approximately 200 pounds (96 kg) of material from the moon’s surface after landing in the cratered Cartesian region of the moon’s highlands . Chemical analysis of soil-like pebbles in samples collected by astronauts scraping the landing site revealed the presence of various noble gases, including argon and xenon. These trapped gases serve as useful timestamps for space weather processes such as the solar wind and asteroid impacts that have contributed to the formation and reformation of the Moon’s surface over billions of years.
Most of the samples collected during the Apollo era have already been scrutinized. To take advantage of new science and technology, NASA cracked open It was one of the last sealed samples collected during the Apollo 17 mission just two years ago. Much of what we know about the Moon and its evolution comes from these samples, including the Moon’s true age. 40 million years older than we thought.
But researchers say this new study of trapped lunar gas is already revealing a new chapter in the moon’s history.
“We can now build a more complete picture of the history of this part of the moon in the early solar system, in which the larger impacts that occurred on the lunar surface during the first billion years or so It was replaced by a weaker period from 2 billion years ago onwards,” study lead author Mark Nottingham of the University of Glasgow, UK, said in a recent paper. statement.
When analyzing samples collected during the Apollo 16 mission, Nottingham and colleagues used mass spectrometry techniques to catalog the various noble gases and their abundance in the samples. This helped “determine how long the samples were exposed at or near the moon’s surface.” Nottingham said in a statement:
Chemical composition of the gases trapped in theseregolith breccia“This is the result of lunar dust melting into the rocks under the powerful forces of an asteroid impact, indicating that they were exposed to the solar wind and asteroid impacts for an extended period of time.”
The specific age of exposure varies widely between samples, from 2.5 billion years ago to less than 1 billion years ago, suggesting that the lunar soil around the landing site is “well-mixed,” with some of it dredged to the surface by more recent impacts. It suggests that. Research report.
Professor Nottingham said research like this will help scientists better understand where and how abundant noble gases and other elements are on the moon, and help humans better plan future lunar explorations. It is said that it is useful for establishing
“Samples brought back by Apollo 16 more than half a century ago still have secrets to uncover about the moon’s history and could help shape how we explore the solar system in coming decades.” It’s remarkable to think that,” Nottingham said. .
Regarding this research, paper Published in “Meteoritics & Planetary Science” magazine on October 15th