Revealing the Moon’s Core: New Discoveries Illuminate Its Structure and Origins

According to Tabnak’s report, citing Khabar Online, more than 4.5 billion years ago, shortly after the formation of the solar system, a Mars-sized planet named “Tia” collided with the early planet Earth. This tremendous impact threw many fragments of Theia’s waste rock and the Earth’s crust into space. Under the influence of gravity, these fragments began to accumulate in a few years, or according to some theories, a few hours, and they formed the moon, nicknamed “The Moon”.
When the young moon is still in a state of fusion, an internal fusion process takes place which causes the core, mantle and crust to separate. These three inner layers, like Earth, remain the structure of the Moon, making it the second densest moon in the Solar System after Jupiter’s moon Io.

What is the surface of the moon covered with?
According to Euronews, the outside of the moon is covered with bits of dust and rock, which scientists call “regolith”. The thickness of this regolith varies according to different regions and is less than 5 meters in the lunar seas and up to 20 meters in the highlands. Lunar soil is also made up of two rock types called basalt and anorthosite.

What is the internal structure of the moon?
Beneath the surface of the regolith is the lunar crust and is estimated to have an average thickness of between 35 and 45 km on the visible side and 100 km on the hidden side of the moon. This asymmetric series contains several chemical elements such as oxygen, magnesium, iron​​​​​​​​and hydrogen.
In the layer below the earth’s crust is the mantle of the moon. Scientists believe that this flag is the result of the compression of a lava ocean that formed about 100 million years ago; And finally, in the heart and center of the moon is meaning. A heart that has a complex structure like the earth’s core.

New discoveries about the heart of the moon
The structure of the Moon’s core has long been debated among scientists. Scientists now believe that the core is liquid in the outer layers and solid in the middle. Although the liquid nucleus of the atom was discovered about 20 years ago, it was only recently discovered that the nucleus also has a strong component.

A French research team including researchers from CNRS, Université Cote d’Azur, Cote d’Azur Observatory, Sorbonne University and Paris-PSL Observatory discovered in 2023 that the moon has a solid core with a diameter of 500 km, which is about 15% of the total size of the moon. . This small structure was previously unknown.

According to research published in 2023, this solid core is composed of a metal whose density is close to iron.

This research also revealed a phenomenon known as “mantle turnover”, which confirmed the hypothesis of material movement in the mantle. This phenomenon explains why elements rich in iron are found on the surface of the moon.