Magnetism on the moon

In the nearly five decades since the first lunar surveys were conducted as part of NASA’s Apollo space program, scientists have advanced a number of increasingly complex theories to explain the vast swaths of highly magnetic material that were found in some parts of the moon’s crust. But now a team of researchers from Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris have proposed a surprisingly simple explanation for the unusual findings, suggesting that the magnetic anomalies are remnants of a massive asteroid collision. As described in a paper published March 9 in Science, the researchers believe that an asteroid slammed into the moon approximately 4 billion years ago, leaving behind an enormous crater and iron-rich, highly magnetic rock. While there is evidence that the moon once generated its own magnetic field, there is little to suggest it was strong enough to account for the anomalies...

Read the whole article on Harvard Science

More from Harvard Science

Related