Scientists Struggle To Understand ‘Moon Goo’ Ahead Of Planned Lunar Missions

Government-affiliated and private-sector space exploration organizations alike have been working toward launching new missions to the moon in recent years, but it’s already clear that there’s a lot humans just don’t know about the rock orbiting our planet.

A mysterious component

Although it’s been decades since astronauts landed on the lunar surface, our knowledge about the moon has continued to increase — including the apparent discovery of an as-yet unidentified substance.

For now, experts are referring to it as “moon goo,” speculating that it moves around based on the pull of gravity from the Earth and the sun. Its motions have been compared to those of our planet’s ocean tides.

But just adding “moon goo” to a list of lunar characteristics that also includes crust, mantle, and core, doesn’t seem to give us a lot of useful information. So that’s why a team of researchers at NASA and the University of Arizona sought to determine the actual impact and implications of this stuff.

Digging through the data

A trove of information from both the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at NASA served as the basis for the latest research. As the report concluded, this research constitutes the “first measurement of the Moon’s yearly gravity changes due to tides.”

If moon goo remains in a constantly malleable layer, the scientists argued, the logical explanation is that there is a source of heat keeping the material from hardening.

While there’s plenty more research to do on this intriguing layer beneath the moon’s surface, the study revealed: “The existence and maintenance of such a zone, often explained with the existence of partial melt, has implications for our knowledge of the Moon’s thermal state and evolution.”

Chris Agee October 8th, 2024

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