We have known for a long time that the Moon is not made of cheese, and now we also know that the inner core is not liquid, but solid, according to a recent study, and that it once had a very strong magnetic field, which was about 3.2 billion started to decline years ago.
Whether the Moon’s interior is solid or liquid has long been a topic among astronomers, but a 2023 study found that the Moon’s inner core is actually a solid ball with a density similar to that of iron. The scientists continued this research to gain complete certainty of their assumption. For this, new tests and modeling were carried out.
The previous study used seismic data from the Apollo missions, but the resolution was too low for the researchers to be sure. Therefore, researchers collected data from space missions and lunar laser ranging experiments. They also took into account the degree of deformation caused by the gravitational interaction with the Earth and the change in distance from the Earth.
After that, modeling was carried out with different core types, which revealed that there may be an active overturning deep in the lunar mantle. This means that the denser material inside the Moon falls towards the center, and the less dense material rises upwards. It also turned out that the Moon’s core is very similar to Earth’s – has an outer liquid layer and a solid inner core. According to their modeling, the radius of the outer core is about 362 kilometers and the inner core is about 258 kilometers. This is about 15 percent of the total radius of the Moon.
The research team found that a inner core density is also about 7822 kilograms per cubic meter, which is very close to the density of iron. According to the researchers, their results confirm these previous findings and provide fairly strong evidence for an Earth-like lunar core. Of course, once man returns to the Moon, it will be possible to back up the results of the study with seismic data.
