What rocks should scientists study when we next visit the moon?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-08-04 01:00

International

Nicolas Thomas

The Apollo missions brought almost 400kg of rocks back from the moon to study, but scientists are sure to want more when we next visit our lunar neighbour. International researchers have identified rock types they believe are missing from our current collection, and will tell the most interesting stories about how solar systems form. Some of the rocks include olivine (the rock form of the gemstone peridot), volcanic glasses, and other "unusual volcanic materials" that they've spotted on the lunar surface.

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Journal/
conference: Nature Communications

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA

Funder: Daniel Moriarty is funded by NASA under a cooperative agreement with the University of Maryland, award number 80GSFC21M0002

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