Scientists have just discovered a strange new element in the dust of the moon in the Apollo era

The flag has come a long time since then NASA launched Apollo 17 mission. Over the past fifty years, the researchers have developed advanced techniques and techniques that exceeded that available in 1972.

This progress is exactly what NASA was hoping to achieve when the Apollo 17 astronauts –The last human beings whose feet have settled the surface of the moonShe returned to Earth with more than 2000 samples of rocks and lunar dust. Some of them were removed in the hope that the best scientists can be prepared one day from that Sampling and Achieving new discoveries.

This is what a team of researchers led by James W. Dotin III, Assistant Professor in Earth Sciences, Environment and Planets at Brown University. Dotin and his colleagues analyzed the composition of the samples taken from the Torous-Litro Valley on the moon. The results published last month in the magazine Planets JGRIt indicates that the volcanic substances in the samples contain sulfur compounds that are flagrantly different from those on our planet.

“Before that, it was believed that the lunar scarf had the same composition of sulfur analogues on the ground.” press release. “This is what I expected to see when analyzing these samples, but instead we saw completely different values ​​from anything we find on the ground.”

A 50 -year discovery

After the Apollo 17 astronauts fall in the Torus-Lertro Valley, they extracted a two-feet-foot sample from the moon using a hollow metal tool called the double motor tube. Once she returns to Earth, this sample and many other samples have remained closed inside her tubes under the protection of the NASA Apollo samples analysis program.

In the past few years, NASA has started accepting new research proposals to study Angsa samples. Dotin suggested sulfur analogs analysis using the measuring the secondary ionic spectrum, a high -resolution technique that was not available when samples were returned for the first time to the ground.

Researchers can use this technique to measure the proportions of different isotopes in the sample. These proportions act as a distinctive “fingerprint” indicating the origin of the sample. Consequently, it is possible that two samples have the same isotope imprint that came from the same source.

Previous research has It is shown The oxygen analogues in the lunar sample are almost identical between the moon and the Earth, so Dotin assumes that the same applies to sulfur isotopes. The results they reach tell a completely different story.

Two distinct seizures

Dotin and his colleagues specifically analyzed parts of the driving tube sample that seemed to be volcanic rocks of the moon’s cloak. Their analysis revealed that the volcanic substances in the sample contain sulfur compounds that contain a very low sulfur 33, which is a radioactive sulfur. This is completely different from the ratios of sulfur analogues on the ground.

Dotin said: “My first idea was: Oh my God, this cannot be true.” “So we went back to make sure we did everything correctly and we did it. These are just very surprising results.”

According to researchers, the results indicate that sulfur is formed in chemical reactions early in the history of the moon, or that it stems from its composition. Experts are widely believed that the moon consists of the debris caused by the Earth’s collision with a Mars body called thea. Researchers could have found traces of the sulfuri signing of the mantle of the moon.

Dotin hopes that when the researchers analyze sulfuric isotopes from other planets such as Mars, they may start solving this puzzle. Essential analysis has already provided basic visions on how the Earth appears and its only natural moon, and this approach will continue to help scientists detect the history of our solar system.