Planetary scientists compared the composition of lunar soil with data from lunar satellites and shared surprising conclusions.
One of the samples of lunar soil was delivered to Earth in 1972 by the crew of the last manned lunar mission to date: Apollo 17. It is worth noting that the Apollo 17 crew included geologist Harrisson Schmitt, and taking a geologist to the Moon was a very good decision from the point of view of competent selection of samples.
It turned out that there was a lot of mineral in it called ilmenite – titanium iron ore, very dense and heavy. By the way, why is it called ilmenite: because it was first found in the Urals in the Ilmen Mountains. So, this lunar ilmenite raises some questions.
Apollo 17 worked in the Sea of Clarity, one of the largest, most famous and perfectly visible to the naked eye of an earthling. In general, as you know, the lunar seas are frozen volcanic rocks, basalts. And as we compared soil samples delivered from the Moon, it became clear that these basalts contain a lot of ilmenites. Moreover, for some reason, precisely on the near side of the Moon.
Such minerals, according to geologists, should have been formed soon after the formation of the Moon itself – when the upper layers of the first completely molten lunar magma began to solidify. But what’s interesting: with such a heaviness, the ilmenites inevitably had to “sink”, sink down, especially taking into account the fact that, according to existing ideas, there should have been less dense rocks underneath them. Therefore, by all indications, at the beginning of the evolution of the Moon, a great revolution occurred: the lunar mantle “turned inside out” as the ilmenites settled.
In principle, of course, some of these heavy rocks could and should partially rise to the surface again here and there with volcanic eruptions. But why then is this not traced evenly throughout the entire Moon, but is concentrated specifically on the visible side? Planetologists say that after investigating the circumstances of this great lunar upheaval, the result is a downright adventure scenario. They believe that something additional intervened here.
And the clue was a detailed examination of another interesting phenomenon of the lunar surface – the vast lunar seas cover an area of suspicious abundance of rare earth elements, coupled with phosphorus and potassium. This territory was called KREEP: K – means potassium, REE – rare-earth elements, P – phosphorus. And here is a map of the distribution of this combination of substances on the Moon. More accurately, this is a map of thorium distribution, but thorium is a sure sign of KREEP. The green color indicates where there is a lot of this.
And here’s an assumption about this: maybe this impact caused such a powerful thermal wave that all these rare-earth substances, along with the ilmenites, flowed with this wave to the visible side of the Moon. And this, at least in part, explains its striking external and internal difference from the other side.
Great hopes for the continuation of this “adventurous” investigation are pinned on future lunar missions: the crews will definitely land in the lunar “Antarctica”, that is, in the southern polar regions where no man has ever set foot: this zone is attractive because of the abundance of water ice in it. Bringing soil from this lunar permafrost to Earth is a very intriguing task.
#manned #expedition #needed #VIDEO
2024-04-18 11:57:35