Corey S Powell

Scattered across the Moon are peculiar, snaking bright swirls. Nobody knows what created them. Comet impacts, maybe?

A new paper suggests a different answer: Lunar swirls might trace underground rivers of frozen, magnetic lava.

https://source.wustl.edu/2024/06/moon-swirls-could-be-magnetized-by-unseen-magmas/ #space #science #astronomy #Moon #NASA

Moon ‘swirls’ could be magnetized by unseen magmas - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis

In a laboratory setting, experimental petrologists at Washington University in St. Louis recreated the magnetizing reactions that could be causing the mysterious, light-colored features on the Moon’s surface, known as lunar swirls.

The Source
Jul 29, 2024 at 4:24amWeb
Show threadCorey S PowellJul 29, 2024

I love that the Moon still holds so many mysteries.

Next year, the Lunar Vertex mission will send a little rover driving across Reiner Gamma -- the most prominent of the lunar swirls -- to figure out what the heck is going on there.

https://www.jhuapl.edu/destinations/missions/lunar-vertex #science #space #astronomy #astrodon

Lunar Vertex

Lunar Vertex will be the first mission to carry out a comprehensive study of lunar magnetic anomaly and the associated swirl and mini-magnetosphere.

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory