Scientists Might Finally Know What’s Going on in the Moon’s Core
By now we’re all well aware that the moon isn’t made of cheese, but while we have known since the first moon landing what the surface is made of, the lunar core is another story. Astronomers have long wondered what was going on deep under the moon’s crust and now they finally know.
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00:00By now we're all well aware that the moon isn't made of cheese, but while we have known
00:08since the first moon landing what the surface is made of, the lunar core is another story.
00:13Astronomers have long wondered what was going on under the moon's crust, and now they might
00:16finally know.
00:18Researchers have been collecting seismic data from the moon for years, which is one of the
00:21best ways to figure out the material composition of a cosmic body.
00:24That's because earthquakes, or in this case moonquakes, move through different materials
00:28in different ways.
00:29However, seismic data is quite low resolution.
00:31Now new research is using laser ranging to decipher lunar composition.
00:35So what is the moon's core made of?
00:37Well, experts say it's a dense solid center, and its density points to iron.
00:42That means the lunar core is quite similar to the one Earth has, i.e. a solid center
00:46with a liquid layer surrounding it.
00:47The new data outlines that the outer lunar core is 550 miles in diameter, and the inner
00:52is 320 miles in diameter.
00:55And each cubic meter of material weighs about 17,244 pounds, or pretty darn close to the
01:01density of iron.
01:02This also corroborates past data, and points to the moon once having a powerful magnetic
01:07field.