The end of the lunar dynamo
Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Magnetic measurements of the lunar crust and Apollo samples indicate that the Moon generated a dynamo magnetic field lasting from at least 4.2 until <2.5 billion years (Ga) ago. However, it has been unclear when the dynamo ceased. Here, we report paleomagnetic and 40...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132237.2 |
| _version_ | 1810978080218415104 |
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| author | Mighani, Saied Wang, Huapei Shuster, David L. Borlina, Cauê S. Nichols, Claire Weiss, Benjamin P. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Mighani, Saied Wang, Huapei Shuster, David L. Borlina, Cauê S. Nichols, Claire Weiss, Benjamin P. |
| author_sort | Mighani, Saied |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Magnetic measurements of the lunar crust and Apollo samples indicate that the Moon generated a dynamo magnetic field lasting from at least 4.2 until <2.5 billion years (Ga) ago. However, it has been unclear when the dynamo ceased. Here, we report paleomagnetic and 40Ar/39Ar studies showing that two lunar breccias cooled in a near-zero magnetic field (<0.1 μT) at 0.44 ± 0.01 and 0.91 ± 0.11 Ga ago, respectively. Combined with previous paleointensity estimates, this indicates that the lunar dynamo likely ceased sometime between ~1.92 and ~0.80 Ga ago. The protracted lifetime of the lunar magnetic field indicates that the late dynamo was likely powered by crystallization of the lunar core. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:21:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/132237.2 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:21:22Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/132237.22022-07-22T13:51:02Z The end of the lunar dynamo Mighani, Saied Wang, Huapei Shuster, David L. Borlina, Cauê S. Nichols, Claire Weiss, Benjamin P. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Magnetic measurements of the lunar crust and Apollo samples indicate that the Moon generated a dynamo magnetic field lasting from at least 4.2 until <2.5 billion years (Ga) ago. However, it has been unclear when the dynamo ceased. Here, we report paleomagnetic and 40Ar/39Ar studies showing that two lunar breccias cooled in a near-zero magnetic field (<0.1 μT) at 0.44 ± 0.01 and 0.91 ± 0.11 Ga ago, respectively. Combined with previous paleointensity estimates, this indicates that the lunar dynamo likely ceased sometime between ~1.92 and ~0.80 Ga ago. The protracted lifetime of the lunar magnetic field indicates that the late dynamo was likely powered by crystallization of the lunar core. 2022-07-22T13:51:00Z 2021-09-20T18:21:26Z 2022-07-22T13:51:00Z 2020 2020-05-08T14:33:32Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132237.2 en 10.1126/sciadv.aax0883 Science Advances Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ application/octet-stream American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science Advances |
| spellingShingle | Mighani, Saied Wang, Huapei Shuster, David L. Borlina, Cauê S. Nichols, Claire Weiss, Benjamin P. The end of the lunar dynamo |
| title | The end of the lunar dynamo |
| title_full | The end of the lunar dynamo |
| title_fullStr | The end of the lunar dynamo |
| title_full_unstemmed | The end of the lunar dynamo |
| title_short | The end of the lunar dynamo |
| title_sort | end of the lunar dynamo |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132237.2 |
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