Earth is the only planet in the Solar System with only one moon, which is influential to the planet. Some research suggests that life on Earth may not exist without the Moon. The Moon is only a quarter the size of Earth, and scientists are curious about its origin.
According to Science Alert, a new study of six lunar rocks found that they are noble gases typically found in Earth's interior. Researchers believe this can prove that Earth's natural satellite was once part of the planet and only created after something smashed into it.
Novel Instrument Detect Noble Gases in Lunar Rocks
A team of geochemists, cosmochemists, and petrologists from ETH Zurich shed new light on the Moon's origin story in the study titled "Indigenous Noble Gases in the Moon's Interior," which is published in the journal Science Advances. The team reports that the Moon has the indigenous noble gases of helium and neon, which can be found in Earth's mantle, supporting the "Giant Impact" theory.
Patrizia Will from ETH Zurich analyzed the six lunar rock samples from an Antarctic collection that NASA obtained years ago. According to Science Daily, the meteorites were covered in basalt rock from the magma that welled up from the interior of the Moon that cooled quickly.
The basalt layers had protected the rocks from cosmic rays and solar wind. When the team discovered them, lunar glass particles retained helium and neon chemical fingerprints from the Moon's interior. The findings support the idea that the Moon has inherited the gases indigenous to Earth.
The team hypothesized that it likely took a high-energy impact for meteorites from the middle of the lake to eject to Earth. Many of these lunar rocks are picked up in North Africa's deserts and Antarctica, where they are easier to spot because of the landscape.
To identify these noble gases, the team used a state-of-the-art noble gas mass spectrometer called "Tom Dooley." The instrument enabled them to measure sub-millimeter glass particles from meteorites to rule out the solar wind as their source, detecting helium and neon as an abundant noble gas.
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Renewed Interest in Noble Gas in Meteorites
Henner Busemann, a geochemist from ETH Zurich, said that such noble gases might not be necessary for life, but it is interesting to know how some of them survived the violent formation of the Moon.
The study's findings could lead to a renewed interest in studying noble gases in meteorites and give a closer look at what could be in the lunar rocks. Knowing the Moon's geochemistry and geophysics could help create new models showing the volatile elements that can survive planet formation in space.
Busemann added that knowing where to look inside the 70,000 meteorite collection of NASA represents a significant step forward. He believes that researchers will soon look for other noble gases, like xenon and krypton, and for volatile elements, such as hydrogen and halogens.
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