basal magma ocean tagged posts

Magma Ocean may be Responsible for the Moon’s early Magnetic Field

The bottom-most layer of the moon's mantle melts to form a metal-rich "basal magma ocean" that sits on top of the moon's metal core. Convection in this layer may have driven a dynamo, creating a magnetic field which would have been recorded at the surface by the cooling lunar crust, including the samples brought back by Apollo astronauts. Credit: Aaron Scheinberg

The bottom-most layer of the moon’s mantle melts to form a metal-rich “basal magma ocean” that sits on top of the moon’s metal core. Convection in this layer may have driven a dynamo, creating a magnetic field which would have been recorded at the surface by the cooling lunar crust, including the samples brought back by Apollo astronauts. Credit: Aaron Scheinberg

Around 4 billion years ago, the Moon had a magnetic field that was about as strong as Earth’s magnetic field is today. How the Moon, with a much smaller core than Earth’s, could have had such a strong magnetic field has been an unsolved problem in the history of the Moon’s evolution...

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