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The basalt meteorite is a piece of moon rock that was formed 2.35 billion years ago in a lava flow, long after volcanism on the moon should be ended. | Credit: Dr. Joshua Snape / University of Manchester
A meteorite that fell out of the moon and was found in Africa is a rare volcanic rock from a time period in lunar history, about which scientists know little.
The 311-gram-gaming stone was discovered in 2023 and, as a meteorite of the northwest Africa in 16286, is known and based on the decay of the leading isotopes that he contains was dated around 2.35 billion years ago.
“His age and its composition show that the volcanic activity on the moon has continued in this period, and our analysis indicates that a persistent heating regeneration process within the moon from radiogenic elements that expire over a long period of time and produce the heat may be of heat,” said the senior researcher Joshua Snape of the University of Manchester in a statement.
The meteorite is an important piece in the puzzle that is the history of the moon and fills in our knowledge for almost billion years. The meteorite is much younger than the rehearsals caused by the Apollo missions of NASA, the Luna missions of the Soviet Union and China Chang’e 6 Mission, which are between 3.1 and 4.3 billion years old, but older than the 1.9-milli-old rocks that were returned by Chang’e.
It is crucial that Meteorite has a volcanic origin in 16286, with geochemical analysis shows that it has formed when a lava current from deep in the moon ventilated and solidified. It contains relatively large crystals of a mineral called Olivin, moderate titanium values and high potassium levels. His lead isotopes also point to a volcanic source that is deep underground that has an unusually high ratio of uranium to leadership (the lead, a decay product of uranium). This abundance of uranium and the heat that she generated as part of radioactive decay is a potential indication of what volcanism had in operation a billion years after the main accidents have been stopped.
A scanning electron microscope image of a piece of the moon meteorite 16286. The various grayscale emphasizes the different minerals in the rock. | Credit: Dr. Joshua Snape / University of Manchester
There are only 31 volcanic almond rocks found on Earth in the form of meteorites, and Meteorite 16286 is by far the youngest.
“Moon rocks are rare, so it is interesting if we get something that stands out and looks different from everything else,” said Snape.
The meteorite is more evidence that volcanism continued on the moon during this time. Chang’e 5 has found such evidence in its rehearsals from the moon television by Vulcanism in the past 123 million years. Together, these discoveries change what we thought that we had almost to this day about the volcanism of the moon and how the moon remained geologically, at least in bursts.
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The next step is to determine the origin of the meteorite on the moon: Probably a crater is blown into the surface due to a impact that raised the meteorite a long time ago. As soon as it has been identified, it will be a first -class place for a future mission for rehearsal return to learn more about the lunar volcanism in this little -known time from which there are so few samples.
Snape presented the results on the Goldschmidt Goldschmidt meeting in Prague, which took place between 6, and 11 July.
