Mysterious Whirlpools Discovered Under the Moon’s Surface
Astronomers have been interested in strange swirls visible on the Earth’s surface for many years.Moon. They, which can extend for hundreds of kilometers and emit light that makes them visible from Earth in amateur telescopes, have been the subject of various studies, but their origin has not been established with certainty. A recent study suggests a new hypothesis: these swirls may be caused by underground lava and strange magnetic anomalies.
An unsolved mystery
Despite numerous studies and analyses of images and magnetic field measurements conducted POTThe origin of these lunar swirls has long been a mystery. They coincide with areas where magnetic anomalies are observed, leading scientists to speculate about different possible reasons.
Michael J. Krawczynski, an associate professor of earth, environmental, and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and lead author of a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Planets, suggests that meteorite impacts could have caused magnetic anomalies. However, he admits that this theory does not fully explain the existence of vortices in areas not bombarded by meteorites.
Kravchinsky offers an alternative: the presence of underground magma which slowly cools in a magnetic field, thus creating magnetic anomalies. His team experimented with ilmenite, a titanium oxide mineral found on the Moon that can form magnetizable particles of metallic iron.
Experiments
Kravchinsky’s team discovered that small grains of ilmenite form stronger magnetic fields due to the higher surface to volume ratio, which facilitates the reduction reaction. This reactivity is similar to that observed in lunar meteorite samples, as confirmed by the Apollo missions.
These data suggest that underground magma with high titanium content may be the source responsible for lunar vortices what is happening. However, the researchers acknowledge that this hypothesis can only be confirmed by collecting direct samples from the Moon.
Future missions
This year, NASA plans to launch a mission called Lunar Vertex, which will send a rover to study Rainer Gamma, one of the vortices. best known on the moonThis mission could provide important data to better understand these phenomena.
“Our experiments have shown that in lunar conditions it is possible to create magnetizable material required to form these eddies. However, until we can collect and analyze samples directly from these areas, we will not be able to fully confirm our theory,” Kravchinsky concludes.
This research may not only reveal the mystery of lunar vortices, but also offer new possibilities. new tracks about the magnetism and geology of the Moon, and provides a deeper understanding of the processes that shaped its surface.
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