Scientists found a new magnetic mineral in Chang’e-6 Moon samples, preserved inside impact-glass particles

About 4.25 billion years ago, the Moon possessed a powerful core dynamo with a field strength comparable to or even exceeding modern Earth's. This magnetic field, generated by circulating molten metal, completely shut down as the interior cooled and core crystallisation ceased, leaving the Moon without a global magnetic field in the present. While it no longer generates a global magnetic field, traces of its ancient magnetism still remain locked inside lunar soil and rocks.Scientists have been studying these magnetic minerals preserved in the soil in order to reconstruct how the Moon's magnetic environment changed over time. Researchers analysing metallic iron inside impact glass from Chang'e-6 lunar soil have now identified a previously unknown magnetic mineral in natural Moon samples. They have identified it as a form of metallic iron called γ-Fe. Found inside tiny impact-glass particles, the nanoscale iron can preserve a stable magnetic signal, potentially acting like a microscopic fossil of the Moon’s long-lost magnetic field, as per the findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on September 16.The study was led by Professor Haifeng Du of ...