You are browsing the archive for moon Archives - Page 2 of 2 - GeoSpace.
3 May 2018
Breathing lunar dust could pose health risk to future astronauts
Future astronauts spending long periods of time on the Moon could suffer bronchitis and other health problems by inhaling tiny particles of dust from its surface, according to new research. A new study finds simulated lunar soil is toxic to human lung and mouse brain cells. Up to 90 percent of human lung cells and mouse neurons died when exposed to dust particles that mimic soils found on the Moon’s surface.
28 February 2018
New model suggests the Moon formed inside the vaporized Earth
A new explanation for the Moon’s origin has it forming inside the Earth when our planet was a seething, spinning cloud of vaporized rock, called a synestia.
6 February 2018
Fossilized feature records Moon’s slow retreat from Earth
New research provides insight into the Moon’s excessive equatorial bulge, a feature that solidified in place over four billion years ago as the Moon gradually distanced itself from the Earth. A new study sets parameters on how quickly the Moon could have receded from the Earth and suggests the nascent planet’s hydrosphere was either non-existent or still frozen at the time, indirectly supporting the theory of a fainter, weaker Sun that at the time radiated around 30 percent less energy than it does today.
21 November 2017
Moon’s Crust Underwent Resurfacing after Forming from Magma Ocean
A research team took to the lab to recreate the magmatic melt that once formed the lunar surface and uncovered new insights on how the modern moonscape came to be. Their study found found that one of the great mysteries of the lunar body’s formation – how it could develop a crust composed largely of just one mineral – cannot be explained by the initial crust formation and must have been the result of some secondary event.
13 September 2017
Early volcanic activity may have caused bumps to erupt across lunar plains
Scientists have discovered a new feature on the surface of the Moon: small mounds that grew on its dark plains, likely from volcanic activity.
5 July 2016
Odd behavior of Jovian moon dust could inform future space missions, search for life
New research into the movements of dust around Jupiter’s four largest moons could help scientists searching for life in our solar system, according to a new study. This moon dust around Jupiter could give scientists clues about the composition of the surface of its satellites.
21 June 2016
Saturn moon Enceladus’ ice shell likely thinner than expected
A vast ocean of water beneath the icy crust of Saturn’s moon Enceladus may be more accessible than previously thought, according to new research. A new study has revealed that near the moon’s poles, the ice covering Enceladus could be just two kilometers (one mile) thick—the thinnest known ice shell of any ocean-covered moon. The discovery not only changes scientists’ understanding of Enceladus’ structure, but also makes the moon a more appealing target for future exploration, according to the study’s authors.
15 June 2016
New study questions source of rare Earth metals that provide clues to life’s origins
A new study is reviving a decades-old debate about how Earth’s rarest elements came to exist on our planet – theories that have implications for the origin of life.
10 September 2015
Asteroids have “fractured and pulverized” the moon’s subsurface
Large asteroids that crash into the moon cause fractures to the lunar crust that extend up to 25 kilometers (16 miles) below the moon’s surface, finds a new study. These cracks could contain a record of asteroid impacts that bombarded the inner planets billions of years ago, possibly shedding new light on the formation of our solar system and the origin of life on Earth, according to researchers.
16 December 2010
Saturn’s moonlets play hide-and-seek
Everyone knows Saturn has rings. Lots of them. They’re big, easily visible, and have achieved iconic status.
But did you know that hiding within those rings are tiny, tiny moons, some less than a kilometer across?
The moons–or moonlets–are so small they’re invisible even to the Cassini spacecraft buzzing around Saturn. But we know they’re there: we can see the distinctive, propeller-shaped patterns they make in Saturn’s rings as they orbit the plane
GeoSpace is a blog on Earth and space science, managed by AGU’s Public Information staff. The blog features posts by AGU writers and guest contributors on all sorts of relevant science topics, but with a focus on new research and geo and space sciences-related stories that are currently in the news.