It is well-known fact that our moon has no atmosphere now. Reasons behind that are it lacks mass and strong enough magnetic field to hold an atmosphere around it. Unlike on our planet, solar winds would rapidly strip away the atmosphere of our moon. However, new research indicates that moon had an atmosphere briefly.
Over 3 billion years ago, our moon went through really tough times. Massive volcanic eruptions shook our satellite leading to the creation of an atmosphere that persisted around 70 million years before it was lost into space. What happened is that gasses from volcanic eruptions that rose above the surface assembled faster than they could escape, thus giving rise to its brief atmosphere.
A map of lavas that emitted gases across the moon. Credit: Debra Needham
More to that, researchers even calculated how much gas rose from volcanic eruptions. They also revealed that moon’s Serenitatis and Imbrium basins had lava oceans. Astronauts in the Apollo 15 and 17 mission, had a task to collect samples from that lava oceans and bring it back to Earth. Thanks to them and other researchers we now know that these regions contained carbon monoxide and other gas components, sulfur and even ingredients for water.
Apollo 17 at Shorty crater. Credit: Apollo 17 Crew, NASA
This new finding dramatically changes our perspective on our only satellite. It will surely help future astronauts, planning lunar missions and other space explorations. Upcoming missions Orion and NASA’s Resource Prospector will try to give us new insights about our moon.
Check out this cool video of a full rotation of our moon. It reveals it's dark side ;)
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