Moon Archives - rustleeast

Lunar Ice Deposits are More Extensive than Previously Thought

By News Staff October 3, 2024

Prior studies found signs of ice in the permanently shadowed regions near the south pole of the Moon, including areas within Cabeus, Haworth, Shoemaker and Faustini craters. A new analysis…

Young Earth May Have Captured Moon from Space, Research Suggests

By News Staff October 2, 2024

The Moon may have been captured during a close encounter between a young Earth and a terrestrial binary (a system of the Moon and another rocky object), according to a…

Study: There Were Volcanic Eruptions on Moon as Recently as 123 Million Years Ago

By News Staff September 6, 2024

There is extensive geologic evidence of ancient volcanic activity on the Moon, but it is unclear how long that volcanism persisted. Magma fountains produce volcanic glasses, which have previously been…

Flakes of Natural Graphene Found in Lunar Soil Samples

By Natali Anderson August 1, 2024

In lunar regolith samples collected by China’s Chang’e-5 probe, planetary scientists have identified few-layer graphene formed together with complex minerals. The finding provides new insights into the origin of the…

NILS Detects Negative Ions on Lunar Surface

By News Staff June 6, 2024

The Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument onboard China’s Chang’e-6 probe has detected negative ions on the surface of the Moon. These ions are produced on the lunar…

Earth’s Moon is Shrinking, New Modeling Study Suggests

By News Staff January 29, 2024

Earth’s Moon shrank more than 46 m (150 feet) in circumference as its core gradually cooled over the last few hundred million years, according to a paper published in the…

Scientists Solve Major Puzzle in Moon’s Geology

By News Staff January 15, 2024

New research from the University of Bristol sheds light on the origin of titanium-rich basaltic magmas on the Moon. A map of the titanium abundances of the Moon’s surface, obtained…

Lunar Anthropocene: Are We in New Epoch of Moon’s History?

By Natali Anderson December 11, 2023

In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, Kansas Geological Survey researcher Justin Holcomb and his colleagues argue the new epoch may have dawned in 1959, thanks to the…

Two Fragments of Protoplanet Theia Lie Deep within Earth, Geoscientists Say

By Enrico de Lazaro November 1, 2023

A giant collision between the ancient protoplanet Theia and the proto-Earth about 4.5 billion years ago may have formed Earth’s Moon as well as two continent-sized regions — formally known…

Moon is Nearly 40 Million Years Older than Previously Thought

By News Staff October 24, 2023

By analyzing tiny lunar zircon crystals gathered by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972, planetary scientists recalculated the age of the Moon. Although previous assessments estimated the Moon as 4.425 billion…