Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999psrd.repte..31m&link_type=abstract
Planetary Science Research Discoveries
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Moon, Origin, Geology, Magnetic Fields, Lunar Prospector, Planetary Science, Planetary Data
Scientific paper
Ever since Apollo astronauts picked up rock samples and started to collect geophysical data from the Moon, evidence has been growing for a small lunar core. The most recent news comes from the Lunar Prospector magnetometer team of Lon Hood (University of Arizona), David Mitchell and Robert Lin (University of California, Berkeley), Mario Acuna (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), and Alan Binder (Lunar Research Institute). Using the spacecraft's on-board instruments, they measured Earth's magnetic field paying particular attention to the slight alterations caused by the Moon. The data were collected in April 1998 while the Moon swung through the north tail lobe of Earth's magnetosphere. The spacecraft magnetometer detected changes in Earth's magnetic field thus giving the researchers the information they needed to estimate the size of the Moon's core. That size came out to be very small. Hood and his collaborators report a lunar core radius of only 340 km +- 90 km. For an iron-rich composition, a core of this size represents merely 1 to 3% of the Moon's total mass. In contrast, Earth's core is about 33% of our planet's total mass. This new evidence for a small lunar core strengthens the popular giant impact hypothesis which says that the Moon formed from hot, rocky debris after a Mars-sized object smashed into the early Earth. Down to its very core, the Moon has a unique history in our Solar System.
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