JPL: Man in the Moon has 'Graphite Whiskers'

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JPL: Man in the Moon has 'Graphite Whiskers'

Post by bystander » Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:50 pm

Man in the Moon has 'Graphite Whiskers'
NASA JPL (2010-2020) - 01 July 2010
In a new analysis of a lunar sample collected by Apollo 17, researchers have detected and dated carbon on the moon in the form of graphite -- the sooty stuff of pencil lead -- which survived from around 3.8 billion years ago, when the moon was heavily bombarded by meteorites. Up to now, scientists thought the trace amounts of carbon previously detected on the surface of the moon came from the solar wind.

Some of the graphite revealed by the new study appeared in a rare rolled form known as "graphite whiskers," which scientists believe formed in the very high-temperature reactions initiated by a meteorite impact. The discovery also means that the moon potentially holds a record of the carbon input by meteors into the Earth-moon system when life was just beginning to emerge on Earth. The research is published in the July 2 issue of the journal Science.
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While the sample from the Mare Serenitatis area came back to Earth in 1972, the research team, led by scientists at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution for Science, used a new technique known as Raman spectroscopy on the sample. Previous techniques enabled scientists to get a sense of the composition, but this kind of spectroscopy is more sensitive and also allows scientists to create an image of the minerals. The graphite whiskers appeared to be a few micrometers in diameter and up to about 10 microns long.

Scientists were surprised at the finding of graphite and graphite whiskers.
Scientists Find Moon Whiskers
Carnegie Institution for Science - 01 July 2010

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