What material does the moon's core consist of?
Although the Moon is a very familiar celestial body, there are many unknowns about its composition, environment, etc. A research paper published in May 2023 by a research team led by the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) revealed that the Moon has a 'solid core composed of metals.'
The lunar solid inner core and the mantle overturn | Nature
The Moon's heart revealed for the first time | CNRS
https://www.cnrs.fr/en/press/moons-heart-revealed-first-time
Research into the internal structure of the Moon has been conducted for a long time, and a research paper published in 2011 based on seismometer data from the Apollo program concluded that the inner core is solid and surrounded by a liquid outer core. However, in the 2011 study, due to problems with the accuracy of the seismometer, it was not clear what material the inner core is made of.
The French research team collected detailed observational data on the moon, including laser ranging data, and then performed simulations with a variety of core materials to find a core material that matched the observational data.
The analysis showed that the Moon has an inner core composed of metal with a density close to that of iron, with a diameter of 500 km, which is equivalent to about 15% of the total volume of the Moon.
The team's analysis also revealed that the moon's core and mantle were replaced during its formation, a process known as mantle overturning, which helps explain the abundance of iron near the moon's surface.
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in Science, Posted by log1o_hf