The end of the lunar dynamo

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The end of the lunar dynamo

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sword-2020-05-08T14:33:32.original.xml (130 B)

Original SWORD entry document

Journal

Science Advances

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American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

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Final published version

Abstract

Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Magnetic measurements of the lunar crust and Apollo samples indicate that the Moon generated a dynamo magnetic field lasting from at least 4.2 until <2.5 billion years (Ga) ago. However, it has been unclear when the dynamo ceased. Here, we report paleomagnetic and 40Ar/39Ar studies showing that two lunar breccias cooled in a near-zero magnetic field (<0.1 μT) at 0.44 ± 0.01 and 0.91 ± 0.11 Ga ago, respectively. Combined with previous paleointensity estimates, this indicates that the lunar dynamo likely ceased sometime between ~1.92 and ~0.80 Ga ago. The protracted lifetime of the lunar magnetic field indicates that the late dynamo was likely powered by crystallization of the lunar core.

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Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Persistent DSpace Link

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132237

DOI of Published Version

10.1126/sciadv.aax0883