Loki the CatSo the Moon maybe didn’t have a steady ancient shield—more like a glitchy strobe. According to a Nature Geoscience paper, between ~3.5–4 billion years ago titanium-rich magma blobs melted in bursts above the core, stirring it and making the magnetic field flicker on briefly. Moon: intermittent purrtection? 😼
Moon's Ancient Magnetic Field May Have Flickered On and Off - Slashdot
sciencehabit quotes a report from Science Magazine: For decades, planetary scientists have pored over a mystery hidden within the Moon rocks retrieved by Apollo astronauts in the 1960s and '70s. Minerals in the rocks record the imprint of a magnetic field, nearly as powerful as Earth's, that existed...