What's Inside The Moon

  What's Inside The Moon : Scientists Finally Confirmed 

 

A thorough investigation found that the inner core of the Moon is, in fact, a solid ball with a density similar to that of iron. The researchers hope that it will help settle a long debate about whether the Moon's inner heart is solid or molten, and lead to a more accurate understanding of the Moon's history and, by extension, that of the Solar System. Following are the some of the important points:-

Most of us were fed a string of myths as children, including that the moon is made of cheese. Well, it's not.

The Moon is not made of green cheese after all.

Scientists have officially confirmed what lies at the heart of our celestial neighbour, and it's certainly not dairy.

Instead, it's a solid ball with a density similar to that of iron.

A team led by astronomer Arthur Briaud wrote: "Our results question the evolution of the moon magnetic field thanks to its demonstration of the existence of the inner core and support a global mantle overturn scenario that brings substantial insights on the timeline of the lunar bombardment in the first billion years of the solar system." The team are able to learn more about the interior materials through acoustic waves created by quakes. Probing the interior composition of objects in the Solar System is most effectively accomplished through seismic data. The way acoustic waves generated by quakes move through and reflect from material inside a planet or moon can help scientists create a detailed map of the object's interior. Researchers hope the newfound discovery can help expand their knowledge of the moon's history and the solar system.

To figure it out once and for all, Briaud and his colleagues collected data from space missions and lunar laser ranging experiments to compile a profile of various lunar characteristics. These include the degree of its deformation by its gravitational interaction with Earth, the variation in its distance from Earth, and its density. We happen to have lunar seismic data collected by the Apollo mission, but its resolution is too low to accurately determine the inner core's state. We know there is a fluid outer core, but what it encompasses remains under debate. Models of a solid inner core and an entirely fluid core work equally well with the Apollo data. Next, they conducted modelling with various core types to find which matched most closely with the observational data.

They made several interesting findings. Firstly, the models that most closely resembled what we know about the Moon describe active overturn deep inside the lunar mantle. This means that denser material inside the Moon falls towards the centre, and less dense material rises upwards. This activity has long been proposed as a way of explaining the presence of certain elements in volcanic regions of the Moon. And they found that the lunar core is very similar to that of Earth, with an outer fluid layer and a solid inner core. The team's research adds another point in the "for" tally of evidence. According to their modelling, the outer core has a radius of about 362 km's (225 miles), and the inner core has a radius of about 258 km's (160 miles). That's about 15% of the entire radius of the Moon. The inner core, the team found, also has a density of about 7,822 kg's per cubic meter. That's very close to the density of iron. Their results, Briaud and his team say, is confirmation of those earlier findings, and constitute a pretty strong case for an Earth-like lunar core. And this has some interesting implications for the Moon's evolution.

In 2011 a team led by NASA Marshall planetary scientist Renee Weber found a similar result using what were then state-of-the-art seismological techniques on Apollo data to study the lunar core. They found evidence of a solid inner core with a radius of about 240 km's, and a density about 8,000 kg's per cubic meter. We know not long after it formed, the Moon had a powerful magnetic field, which started to decline about 3.2 billion years ago. Such a magnetic field is generated by motion and convection in the core, so what the lunar core is made of is deeply relevant to how and why the magnetic field disappeared.  Given humanity's hope to return to the Moon in relatively short order, perhaps we won't have long to wait for seismic verification of these findings.

In other space-related news, Italian fashion designer Prada is set to design NASA's new space suit for an upcoming lunar mission. The space agency's Artemis III mission will be the first moon landing since Apollo 17 in 1972 and engineers at Prada and Axiom Space’s systems teams are joining forces to create the new suits. Mike Suffredini, president and CEO of Axiom Space, said in a statement that, “We're carrying on NASA's legacy by designing an advanced spacesuit that will allow astronauts to operate safely and effectively on the moon. Axiom Space's Artemis III spacesuit will be ready to meet the complex challenges of the lunar south pole and help grow our understanding of the moon in order to enable a long-term presence there".