The person responsible for the lava explosions that left a phenomenon very similar to the “sources of fire” of the volcanoes in Hawaii but on the Moon, is nothing but a gas, specifically, carbon monoxide , according to scientists from Brown University and the Carnegie Institute (USA) who have identified this volatile gas as responsible for these ancient lunar eruptions .
The researchers analyzed the “bubbles” (small volcanic glass beads) inside the lunar rocks collected in their day by the Apollo 15 and 17 missions that suggested that volcanic eruptions with “sources of fire” had occurred on the Moon. “In the past . Some samples contained “fusion inclusions,” that is, small points of molten magma that trapped the magma gases before they could escape.
“For many years we wondered what gas was that produced this type of eruption on the Moon, something that was not easy to discover because the gas is leaving,” explains Alberto Saal, co-author of the study.
This particular lava contained significant amounts of carbon from the depths ; This carbon ended up combining with oxygen to form large amounts of carbon monoxide, finally producing the phenomenon of “sources of fire” in different areas of the lunar surface.
“The presence of the volatile compounds suggests that either some of those on Earth survived the impact and were included on the Moon, or that they both came from a common source, perhaps from a primitive meteorite bombardment,” he clarifies. Saal.
The study has been published in the journal Nature Geoscience .
