SCIENCE

What happened in the past on the hidden side of the Moon? The study

A team of scientists led by Planetary Science Institute researcher Matthew Siegler has discovered a granite body under an ancient lunar volcano on the far side of the Moon.

This discovery would support the thesis that that side of the Moon once shone with volcanic eruptions. The data were collected using NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and through them it was possible to measure the temperature below the Moon's surface called Compton-Belkovich (i.e. the volcanic complex on the opposite side of the Earth's satellite).

After this discovery, scientists may be able to explain how the lunar crust formed in the first phase of the Moon's history.

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Granite body discovered on moon
A team of scientists led by Planetary Science Institute researcher Matthew Siegler has discovered a granite body under an ancient lunar volcano on the far side of the Moon. This discovery would support the thesis that that side of the Moon once shone with volcanic eruptions.
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The volcanic complex on the opposite side of the Moon
The data were collected using NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and through them it was possible to measure the temperature below the surface of the Moon called Compton-Belkovich (i.e. the volcanic complex on the opposite side of the Earth's satellite).
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Discovery could explain the formation of the lunar crust
After this discovery, scientists may be able to explain how the lunar crust formed early in the Moon's history. That feature probably formed as a result of the cooling of magma that fuelled the fiery eruptions of lunar volcanoes some 3.5 billion years ago.
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A discovery not entirely unexpected
For the researchers, it was not entirely unexpected to find remnants of volcanic activity in that area of the Moon as it had long been assumed that a volcano complex was present in that area in ancient times. The research was presented in Lyon, France, and the results were also published in the journal Nature.
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Was water present on that part of the moon?
The fact that granite was formed on the Moon could revive the hypothesis that water was present on it in the past. According to the researchers, in fact, without water it would take very extreme situations to obtain granite.
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