Astronomers have discovered some alien minerals in the center of some impact craters on the moon. Some of these minerals could also be from earth.
Certain alien minerals found in the center of some impact craters on the moon have left scientists puzzled for a while now. However, in a ground breaking discovery, scientists have found that these materials could have landed on the moon after space rock impacts that created these craters and are not exhumed bits of the moon's interior, as previously believed. Some of these minerals could also be asteroid debris from the Earth.
The new findings were made after scientists looked into how meteorite impacts affect the moon. They found that space rocks with impacts that are slow (at speeds of less than 27,000 miles per hour) usually don't vaporize after the impact but shatter into debris that fall into the craters and pile up in its center.
"An origin from within the Moon does not readily explain why the observed spinel deposits are associated with craters like Tycho and Copernicus instead of the largest impact basins," writes Arizona State University researcher Erik Asphaug in a commentary on the paper. "Excavation of deep-seated materials should favor the largest cratering events."
Asphaug also said that there is a high possibility that some craters in the moon also store minerals from the earth. Previously, the Earth was showered with asteroids that sent terrestrial debris into space at speeds that were pretty slow and within the range of this model.
"Even more provocative," explains Asphaug, "is the suggestion that we might someday find Earth's protobiological materials, no longer available on our geologically active and repeatedly recycled planet, in dry storage up in the lunar 'attic'."
