Large mass of granite unexpectedly detected on Moon
Using archival data from four lunar orbiters (two American and two Chinese), researchers have unexpectedly detected evidence suggesting the existence of a large 20-mile-wide mass of granite under a lunar volcanic caldera.
“We have discovered extra heat coming out of the ground at a location on the Moon believed to be a long dead volcano which last erupted over 3.5 billion years ago. It’s around 50km across, and the only solution that we can think of which produces that much heat is a large body of granite, a rock which forms when a magma body – the unerupted lava – below a volcano cools. Granite has high concentrations of radioactive elements like uranium and thorium compared to other rocks in the lunar crust, causing the heating we can sense at the lunar surface”.
Except for some small grains found in Apollo lunar samples, granite has not been found anywhere in the solar system except on Earth. This discovery, if confirmed, will strengthen the theory that the Moon was once part of the Earth and was created from the impact of a second large body.
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Using archival data from four lunar orbiters (two American and two Chinese), researchers have unexpectedly detected evidence suggesting the existence of a large 20-mile-wide mass of granite under a lunar volcanic caldera.
“We have discovered extra heat coming out of the ground at a location on the Moon believed to be a long dead volcano which last erupted over 3.5 billion years ago. It’s around 50km across, and the only solution that we can think of which produces that much heat is a large body of granite, a rock which forms when a magma body – the unerupted lava – below a volcano cools. Granite has high concentrations of radioactive elements like uranium and thorium compared to other rocks in the lunar crust, causing the heating we can sense at the lunar surface”.
Except for some small grains found in Apollo lunar samples, granite has not been found anywhere in the solar system except on Earth. This discovery, if confirmed, will strengthen the theory that the Moon was once part of the Earth and was created from the impact of a second large body.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
This also means pitchblende.
“large 20-diameter mass” – typo?
David Eastman: 20-mile-wide is what it should have read. Thank you. Fixed.
“20-mile-wide”
But what is that in giraffes?
Giraffe-Sized Asteroid to Pass By Earth Safely on Thursday; NASA Spots Another Space Rock Approaching in September
https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/38572/20220706/giraffe-sized-asteroid-pass-earth-safely-thursday-nasa-spots-another.htm
After the Chy-nah balloon incident, I though we measured things in school busses not giraffes?
At least I’m sure about brawando. It’s got what plants crave.
Not the same thing as Australia’s sandstone Ayers Rock, but a buoyant inclusion or a fixed in place remnant?
The Universe seems to want us to remain curious.
Players, or just NPCs?
Giraffe sized? Can I get a banana for scale?
Lunar yellowcake next?
I am skeptical.
Reading the article, The evidence is a hotspot and they’re making up what could be the cause to fit what is being observed. Wild guessing.
I do agree with the premise of radioactive decay, impacts create intense pressure and heat which can form heavier elements. There is also the possibility of supernova remnants in the form of chunks that would be a prize find of unknown elements.
As for an old volcano, I don’t see it. In an airless world with low gravity, it should be pristine. Even so, I’m also guessing.
Theia explains so much about Earth being different than Venus
also suggests there’s probably no other life in our galaxy
if atmospheres near one bar with water oceans depend on colliding a rocky Goldilocks-zone planet with a Mars-sized icy outer planetoid at just the right parameters to create a large satellite and a spinning magnetic dynamo, we would expect them to be exceedingly rare
presumably some cosmic visitor in our early history perturbed an orbit, possibly the Uranus-flipper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theia_(planet)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant-impact_hypothesis
While looking at TallDave’s link, A map of thorium from “lunar prospector” shed some more light where radioactive elements are prevalent, especially in impact Craters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Moon