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The lunar dynamo.

Benjamin P Weiss1, Sonia M Tikoo2

  • 1Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. bpweiss@mit.edu.

Science (New York, N.Y.)
|December 6, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The Moon once had a magnetic field generated by its core dynamo, similar to Earth's present field. This ancient dynamo persisted for millions of years before significantly weakening.

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Area of Science:

  • Planetary Science
  • Geophysics
  • Paleomagnetism

Background:

  • The Moon currently lacks a global magnetic field, but lunar rocks show evidence of ancient magnetization.
  • The origin of this magnetization, whether from an internal lunar dynamo or external sources, was previously uncertain.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine if the Moon's magnetization resulted from an ancient core dynamo.
  • To characterize the intensity and duration of this ancient lunar dynamo.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of laboratory measurements from lunar rocks.
  • Evaluation of spacecraft data.

Main Results:

  • Evidence strongly suggests an ancient lunar core dynamo generated the observed magnetization.
  • The dynamo field existed from at least 4.25 to 3.56 billion years ago.
  • The field's intensity was comparable to Earth's current magnetic field, declining significantly by ~3.3 billion years ago.

Conclusions:

  • The Moon possessed a robust internal magnetic field generated by a core dynamo in its early history.
  • The dynamo's sustenance mechanisms remain uncertain, possibly involving core crystallization or mantle-driven convection.