Moon is rusting? Here's what Chandrayaan-1's data shows

Representational Image (Piqsels.com)

The Moon, which is the Earth’s only natural satellite and the celestial body located closest to our planet, is reportedly rusting. Despite no liquid water (only water ice) or air being present on the Moon, scientists have discovered haematite on the lunar surface.

The haematite was discovered in data brought back by the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 orbiter.

The bizarre discovery has left scientists baffled as haematite is an oxidized form of iron that is formed on the Earth only in the presence of both air and water.

All of these years, the scientific community has known about the presence of rust on the Martian surface in the ancient past, which lends it the red tinge, and earned it the moniker the Red Planet. While the Moon's surface is full of iron-rich rocks, Shuai Li -- lead author of the University of Hawaii – who was studying ice deposits around the lunar pole, did not expect to find rust on the Moon.

Commenting on his discovery, Li said: “It is very puzzling. The Moon is a terrible environment for hematite to form in.”

How and why did the Moon start rusting?

Scientists are of the opinion that the water ice present on the Moon might have mixed with the lunar regolith during impact events.

The haematite was found on the side of the Moon that always faces the Earth. Scientists say this could mean that the rusting of the Moon may have been a result of occurrences on the Earth.

As we know, oxygen from the Earth’s atmosphere can be blown to the Moon by the solar wind when the satellite is in our planet’s magnetotail (during full moon). It is possible thus that Earth’s atmospheric oxygen is the major oxidant that formed haematite on the Moon, as during this time, most of the solar wind gets blocked, and the hydrogen reducing agent does not reach the Moon.