Space
Moon's Crust is Shattered: Asteroids Fractured Surface as Much as Possible
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Sep 10, 2015 02:43 PM EDT
It turns out that our moon can take a few hits. Scientists have found that the moon's crust is as fractured as it possibly could be after the beating it took 4 billion years ago.
The researchers used data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), which are twin spacecraft that orbited the moon throughout 2012. Each measured the push and pull of the other as an indicator of the moon's gravity. The researchers then mapped the gravity field in and around more than 1,200 craters on the far side of the moon, a place known as the lunar highlands.
They found that the lunar highlands appear to have been so heavily bombarded that the impacts completely shattered the upper crust, leaving these regions essentially as fractured and porous as they could be. Not only that, but further impacts may have had the opposite effect and helped seal up these pores over time.
The researchers spotted this particular effect in the upper layer of the crust, called the megaregolith. This layer is dominated by relatively small craters, measuring 30 kilometers or less in diameter. In contrast, it appears that deeper layers of crust, that are affected by larger craters, are not quite as battered and are less fractured and porous.
"The whole process of generating pore space within planetary crusts is critically important in understanding how water gets into the subsurface," said Jason Soderblom, one of the researchers, in a news release. "On Earth, we believe that life may have evolved somewhat in the subsurface, and this is a primary mechanism to create subsurface pockets and void spaces, and really drives a lot of the rates at which these processes happen. The moon is a really ideal place to study this."
The findings reveal a bit more about the moon and its formation which may, in turn, shed a bit of light on how the Earth formed, as well.
The findings are published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
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First Posted: Sep 10, 2015 02:43 PM EDT
It turns out that our moon can take a few hits. Scientists have found that the moon's crust is as fractured as it possibly could be after the beating it took 4 billion years ago.
The researchers used data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), which are twin spacecraft that orbited the moon throughout 2012. Each measured the push and pull of the other as an indicator of the moon's gravity. The researchers then mapped the gravity field in and around more than 1,200 craters on the far side of the moon, a place known as the lunar highlands.
They found that the lunar highlands appear to have been so heavily bombarded that the impacts completely shattered the upper crust, leaving these regions essentially as fractured and porous as they could be. Not only that, but further impacts may have had the opposite effect and helped seal up these pores over time.
The researchers spotted this particular effect in the upper layer of the crust, called the megaregolith. This layer is dominated by relatively small craters, measuring 30 kilometers or less in diameter. In contrast, it appears that deeper layers of crust, that are affected by larger craters, are not quite as battered and are less fractured and porous.
"The whole process of generating pore space within planetary crusts is critically important in understanding how water gets into the subsurface," said Jason Soderblom, one of the researchers, in a news release. "On Earth, we believe that life may have evolved somewhat in the subsurface, and this is a primary mechanism to create subsurface pockets and void spaces, and really drives a lot of the rates at which these processes happen. The moon is a really ideal place to study this."
The findings reveal a bit more about the moon and its formation which may, in turn, shed a bit of light on how the Earth formed, as well.
The findings are published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Related Stories
Oxygen is Not a Definitive Sign for a Habitable World
Ancient Fire Fountains Once Exploded on the Moon's Surface
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone