月球发现纯铁 研究发现月球正在生锈

研究发现月球正在生锈  

study: the moon is rusting
The moon is turning red
and it's likely Earth's fault.
Our pla's atmosphere may be causing the moon to rust
new research finds.
最新研究发现，地球上的大气层可能正让月球慢慢生锈。
Rust
also known as iron oxide
is a reddish pound that forms when iron is exposed to water and oxygen.
But not all celestial environments are optimal for rusting
especially our dry
atmosphere-free moon.
"It's very puzzling
" the study's lead author
Shuai Li of the University of Hawaii
said in a statement. "The moon is a terrible environment for [rust] to form in."
Li was studying data from the JPL Moon Mineralogy Mapper when he realized that the poles of the moon had very different positions from the rest of it.
He found that the moon's polar surfaces had iron-rich rocks with spectral signatures that matched that of hematite.
The mineral hematite
monly found in Earth's surface
is a specific type of iron oxide
or rust
with the formula Fe2O3.
"At first
I totally didn't believe it. It shouldn't exist based on the conditions present on the moon
" said co-author Abigail Fraeman
a plaary geoscientist at JPL. "But since we discovered water on the moon
people have been speculating that there could be a greater variety of minerals than we realize if that water had reacted with rocks."
The moon doesn't have an atmosphere of its own to provide sufficient amounts of oxygen
but it has trace amounts donated by Earth's atmosphere.
This terrestrial oxygen travels to the moon along an elongated extension of the pla's magic field called a "magotail."
Earth's magotail can reach all the way to the near side of the moon
where more of the hematite was found
according to the statement.