The Moon likely has a very dry interior, say scientists who analysed a rusty rock collected from the lunar surface during the Apollo 16 mission in 1972
The question of moons moistness matters because the amount of water and other volatile elements and compounds provide clues to the Moon's history and how it was formed. "It's been a big question whether the Moon is wet or dry.
It might seem like a trivial thing, but this is actually quite important, said James Day, from University of California San Diego in the US If the Moon is dry like we have thought for about the last 45 years, since the Apollo missions it would be consistent with the formation of the Moon in some sort of cataclysmic impact event that formed it," said Day The results suggest that when the Moon formed it was "very, very, hot," he said. Researchers believe it would have been so hot that any water, or other compounds and elements that are volatile under conditions on the Moon such as zinc, would have evaporated very early in the Moon's history It's the only rock from the Moon that came back Day said with what appeared to be rust on its outer surfaces,"
The implications of the Rusty Rock have mystified scientists for a long time since water is one of the essential ingredients of rust The new chemical analyses applied to the Rusty Rock revealed that the rock's composition is consistent with it com- ing from a very dry interior. t's a bit of a paradox. Tt's a wet rock that comes from a very PTI dry interior part of the Moon," Day said
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