Over the past decades, successful explorations to the moon, our natural satellite, have brought seismographs to the surface. Thanks to these vital instruments, scientists were able to discover ‘moonquakes.’ Strikingly, these quakes have revealed a much more clear idea about the interior of the moon. Over the last two decades, scientists confirmed a fluid core inside the moon, but new scientific modeling proves there’s more to it. According to a recent discovery, the fluid outer core of the moon holds a solid inner core, just like our Earth.
The New Discovery
The team of scientists that made the discovery looked at models reproducing the moon’s physical properties from its mass. These observations indicated that there ought to be a solid core inside the fluid one. The research team estimated that this solid inner core of the moon is around 310 miles (500 kilometers) across and has a lighter density than Earth’s. The study, published in Nature, also has given insight into the moon’s magnetic field. Scientists believe that the moon used to have a very powerful magnetic field, produced by its core. According to them, it was almost 100 times stronger than the Earth’s. But the recent observations regarding the moon’s core revealed that this magnetic field is now in an almost non-existent state.
The New Phenomenon
The model also delivered another intriguing insight – ‘lunar mantle overturn.’ In this phenomenon, the material from the moon’s mantle, the thick middle layer sandwiched between the outer core and the thin crust, moves around many times. The scientists assessed that iron-rich material and other elements from the core-mantle boundary might have risen all the way to the surface of the moon. These ended up in volcanic rocks making up the lunar crust. But at the same time, parts of that lunar crust that were relatively denser sank through the lunar mantle all the way down to the moon’s inner core.