{"id":57857,"date":"2024-04-27T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-27T07:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/35a377d1-c650-4789-8bf3-f98c3b6d750b"},"modified":"2024-04-27T08:08:21","modified_gmt":"2024-04-27T08:08:21","slug":"yes-the-moon-is-rusting-and-its-all-earths-fault-but-theres-still-a-missing-piece-of-the-puzzle","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/yes-the-moon-is-rusting-and-its-all-earths-fault-but-theres-still-a-missing-piece-of-the-puzzle\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes the Moon is rusting, and it’s all Earth’s fault. But there’s still a missing piece of the puzzle."},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Saturday, 27 April 2024 at 07:15 AM<\/p>

\n\n

The Moon – yes, our Moon, the one that orbits planet Earth – is rusting, even though theoretically speaking, it shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>

Rust is what happens when iron meets water and oxygen.<\/p>

Water provides the catalyst that enables the iron and oxygen molecules to react with one another and form the particular type of iron oxide known as \u2018hematite\u2019 or, more simply, as \u2018rust\u2019.<\/p>

View of the Earth-facing side of the Moon captured by NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 probe. Small amounts of water and hydroxyl (blue) were detected on the surface of the moon at various locations. Credit: ISRO\/NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Brown Univ.\/USGS<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The reason Mars appears red<\/a>, for instance, is that many millions of years ago, when the planet had liquid water and more of an atmosphere, the iron-rich rocks in its regolith reacted with oxygen and water to form rust.<\/p>

Are you starting to see the problem here? The Moon isn\u2019t supposed to have any oxygen, or any liquid water.<\/p>

So while there\u2019s plenty of iron in Moon rocks, that iron should be free from rust.<\/p>

And yet in 2020, data sent back by India\u2019s Chandrayaan-1 space probe<\/a> clearly revealed the presence of hematite on the lunar surface.<\/p>

\"Enhanced
Enhanced map of hematite (red) on the Earth-facing side of the Moon. Credit: Shuai Li<\/figcaption><\/figure>

So what’s going on?<\/strong><\/h2>

Scientists now believe the Moon is rusting because of the Moon\u2019s interaction with Earth\u2019s magnetic tail.<\/p>

This is a stream of particles that have been first trapped by the Earth\u2019s magnetic field<\/a>, then \u2018blown\u2019 out of it by the solar wind.<\/p>

The Moon passes through Earth\u2019s magnetic tail for roughly six days of each 28-day lunar cycle (around the time that it\u2019s full).<\/p>

And during those six days, a small number of oxygen molecules from Earth could be making it to the Moon.<\/p>

\"If
If you ever see an orange-coloured full Moon, don’t worry. It hasn’t rusted! This is the scattering of light caused by Earth’s atmosphere. Credit: Ambre Haller \/ Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>

That explains where the oxygen part of the equation comes from, but we\u2019re still left needing water before rust can form.<\/p>

There is, of course, water on the Moon \u2013 but only in the form of polar ice<\/p>

So it\u2019s believed the observed hematite may have been formed in the Moon\u2019s polar regions before being distributed elsewhere on the surface by a process or processes unknown.<\/p>

More on this slow-developing story when we have it!<\/p>

And in case you’re wondering why the Moon appears orange<\/a> sometimes, don’t worry. It isn’t rust!<\/p>

A full Moon close to the horizon appears rust-coloured because of light scattering caused by Earth’s atmosphere.<\/p>

jpl.nasa.gov<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Published: Saturday, 27 April 2024 at 07:15 AM The Moon – yes, our Moon, the one that orbits planet Earth – is rusting, even though theoretically speaking, it shouldn\u2019t be. Rust is what happens when iron meets water and oxygen. Water provides the catalyst that enables the iron and oxygen molecules to react with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":57858,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/yes-the-moon-is-rusting-and-its-all-earths-fault-but-theres-still-a-missing-piece-of-the-puzzle.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/yes-the-moon-is-rusting-and-its-all-earths-fault-but-theres-still-a-missing-piece-of-the-puzzle-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/yes-the-moon-is-rusting-and-its-all-earths-fault-but-theres-still-a-missing-piece-of-the-puzzle-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/yes-the-moon-is-rusting-and-its-all-earths-fault-but-theres-still-a-missing-piece-of-the-puzzle-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/yes-the-moon-is-rusting-and-its-all-earths-fault-but-theres-still-a-missing-piece-of-the-puzzle-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/yes-the-moon-is-rusting-and-its-all-earths-fault-but-theres-still-a-missing-piece-of-the-puzzle.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/04\/yes-the-moon-is-rusting-and-its-all-earths-fault-but-theres-still-a-missing-piece-of-the-puzzle.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Saturday, 27 April 2024 at 07:15 AM The Moon – yes, our Moon, the one that orbits planet Earth – is rusting, even though theoretically speaking, it shouldn\u2019t be. Rust is what happens when iron meets water and oxygen. Water provides the catalyst that enables the iron and oxygen molecules to react with…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/57857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}