Moon May Be Geologically Active

dptalia writes, "For decades scientist have thought that the moon has been 'dead' for about 1 to 3 billion years. However, new research points to the idea that the moon may have been volcanically active as recently as 1 million years ago. In fact, NASA geophysicist Paul Lowman believes the moon's core is still molten."

Comments

Let's hope...

[revlayle]

... it doesn't get a GTD (Geologically Transmitted Disease)

Molten Core = Magnetic Field

[casualsax3]

The fact that the moon as a very weak magnetic field is almost proof in and of itself that it doesn't have a molten core:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_field#Magnet ic_field_of_celestial_bodies

Re: active molton core

[Odin_Tiger]

RE:

active molton core? by joe 155 (937621) on Thursday November 09, @10:26AM (#16787197)

I'm not sure what you mean by 'ambient temperature of space', because temperature is a property of matter, and space is kinda empty, so there's nothing to compare it to, unless you want to call it absolute zero, in which case the moon will be quite a bit hotter than that no matter what.
The next nearest approach I would think would be to figure roughly what temp. an otherwise 'dead' object of the moon's size would reach just through the ambient radiation in space, plus collisions (probably insignificant, but maybe not), etc. This has to be tougher than it seems at first glance, though, or I would expect they would have already figured it out.

False alarm...

[__aaclcg7560]

Turns out that the United States government has been building a secret bomb shelter on the dark side of the Moon. Considering the geological implications of Tuesday's election, the new lunar bomb shelter will become the last refuge for the Bush Administration if things get too unstable.

Obligatory Star Wars reference: That's no moon!

[raitchison]

Just wait till it becomes fully operational.

it's not the size of the field...

[Red Flayer]

it's the presence of a dipole. (There's some really terrible doulbe entendres to get from that, but I'll pass onthe opportunity).

by casualsax3 (875131) Alter Relationship on Thursday November 09, @12:30PM (#16787241):

The fact that the moon as a very weak magnetic field is almost proof in and of itself that it doesn't have a molten core:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_field#Magnet ic_field_of_celestial_bodies [wikipedia.org]

The moon's sidereal period is over 27 days, a strong magnetic field would not be expected. The major indicator that a molten core is not present is the lack of a dipolar field -- which a geodynamo (from the molten core) would cause.