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A magnificent view of the moon at Victoria Lookout Point in Wellington, New Zealand.
Credit: Mark Gee / BBC America
Nearly 50 years have passed since man stepped on the moon. Since then, our knowledge of the closest neighbor of the Earth has improved by leaps and bounds, and our obsession with it has never faded. Check out some of the most amazing images of the moon ever recorded and remember the tremendous influence of our moon in BBC America's new documentary "Wonders of the Moon", which will be presented on Friday, July 19th at 22 hours. EDT / 21h CDT. As the world begins its commemoration of the first impressive march on the lunar surface, let's review five of the most recent and fascinating scientific discoveries on the moon.
A striking shot of the 2017 total eclipse from the Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Credit: Carla Thomas / NASA / BBC America
1. There is water on the moon and it is shaking.
In 2009, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) data uncovered water on the moon locked in the ice. A recent upgrade of the orbiter, called the Lyman Alpha Project Mapping Project (LAMP), allowed scientists to take a closer look at the lunar surface water. LAMP has revealed that water molecules move around the moon as the lunar surface heats up and cools during the day.
The water remains stuck on the surface of the moon until lunar noon, when a portion of the water melts and heats up enough to rise in the delicate atmosphere of the moon. The water floats a bit until it reaches an area cold enough to bring it to the surface.
The water on other planetary bodies could be a valuable resource for human explorers, not only for drinking, but also for fueling future robotic exploration, because water can be split to to form a rocket fuel, preventing missions from transporting this fuel from the Earth. [Read more about how water hops around the moon.]
2. There is a huge mass of dense metal below the surface of the south pole of the moon.
Deep below the lunar basin of the South Aitken Pole (the largest impact crater preserved in the solar system), researchers have detected a gigantic "anomaly" of heavy metals housed in the mantle that apparently alters the gravitational field of the moon.
According to a study of the mysterious blob, published April 5 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the anomaly would probably weigh around 2.4 quadrillion tons (2.18 billion kilograms). The researchers do not really know how this giant metal stain is trapped beneath the lunar surface. The simulations suggest that it could act heavy remains of the iron-nickel asteroid that crashed into the hidden face of the moon and created the giant crater of the South Pole-Aitken there is about 4 billion years old. [Read more about the massive blob beneath the moon.]
A beautiful bright moon illuminates the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, UK. Credit: Allyn Wallace / BBC America
3. The moon shrinks and shakes.
The moon is shrinking. And as the crust of our only satellite contracts, researchers have discovered that the latter was firing on cliff-like cracks on the surface, causing many moonquakes.
Scientists revisited moonquake data collected from 1969 to 1977 with the aid of seismic equipment during Apollo lunar missions. They mapped seismic data on satellite images of thrust faults, or escarpments – stepped cliffs on the lunar surface. These formations measure tens of meters high and extend over kilometers. They are visible on images captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The researchers found that about 25% of the moon quakes were probably generated by the energy released by these faults, rather than by asteroid impacts or activity deep within the moon.
The pumps are spread across the Moon's surface in a vast global network and should not exceed 50 million years, the researchers wrote. The age and distribution of the escarpments suggest that they appeared when the interior of the moon cooled, which caused the contraction of its crust. [Read more about the moonquakes]
The incredible view of the International Space Station on the moon. Credit: Luca Parmitano / BBC America
4. You will not hit the rich on the moon.
Gold, platinum and other metals known as highly siderophile elements ("magnet-iron") are much more abundant in the Earth's crust than in their natural satellite. It may seem strange, given the common history of both worlds.
About 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized planet, dubbed Theia, struck the proto-Earth, throwing large quantities of material from both bodies into the space. Part of this liberated substance was incorporated into the bruised and bruised Earth, and some fused to form the moon. But the highly siderophilic elements (HSE) seem to have been left out. These metals were probably delivered by later asteroid attacks – but why does the Earth have so much more than the moon?
Researchers suspect that the weaker gravitational pull of the moon means that the impacted materials are not as good on the moon as on the Earth – many elements striking the moon are returning to space. The low concentration of HSE retained on the moon probably happened before the moon's ocean magma cooled and solidified, so that the material was incorporated into the core of the moon. [Read more about why Earth has way more gold than the moon.]
A burnt orange moon hovers over London. Although scientists have unraveled many of the mysteries of the moon in the fifty years since Apollo 11, the spell of humanity towards our closest neighbor has never faded. Credit: James Burns / BBC America
5. The moon has two faces (probably because of a massive asteroid).
Ours is a two-sided moon: the closer part has a thinner and smoother crust, while the crust of the hidden face is thicker and dotted with impact craters left almost untouched by the lava flows.
Divergences have vexed scientists for decades, and in a new article, researchers are using models to explore possible explanations for profound differences. They argue that these distinctive sides could be the result of a giant impactor striking the moon and leaving a massive crater all over the nearby area. [Read more about what created the moon’s two faces.]
Discover other fascinating facts about the moon with BBC America's "Wonders of the Moon", which will be presented on Friday, July 19th at 10pm. EDT / 21h CDT.
Originally published on Science live.
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