The first lunar samples returned in over 40 years suggest that volcanism on the Moon continued for much longer than previously thought. In December 2020, China’s Chang’e-5 mission returned samples […]
The magma ocean hypothesis is a leading explanation for how the Moon differentiated from its innermost mantle layers to its outermost crustal layer. Igneous samples returned from the surface of […]
Basins created by giant impacts can excavate material from deep within a planetary body and expose its underlying crustal and mantle stratigraphy. The South Pole-Aitken basin (SPA) is the largest […]
Inorganic methods for synthesizing important life-forming molecules, such as amino acids, have been active fields of study for decades. Different “recipes” involve interactions between inorganic molecules (e.g., CH4, NH3, H2, […]
Future exploration of the Moon requires precise knowledge of the distribution of rock types on the lunar surface. A recent map released by the United States Geological Survey separates the […]
The lunar magma ocean (LMO) hypothesis describes the early differentiation and resulting compositional structure of the Moon’s interior, including the formation of a primary flotation crust consisting of anorthositic rocks. […]
Dear Lunar Community, We would like to host a two-hour virtual discussion session on Wednesday, December 4 from 2–4 p.m. EST in order to share our thoughts on how we […]
International Observe the Moon Night is a worldwide celebration of lunar science and exploration held annually since 2010. One day each year, everyone on Earth is invited to observe and […]
The South Pole-Aitken (SP-A) basin is the largest impact feature on the Moon, 2500 kilometers in diameter and 13 kilometers deep. Observations made by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory […]
The Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science at Purdue University has an opening for a postdoctoral researcher to lead a joint code development, modeling, and remote sensing project focused […]
The 2,500-kilometer-diameter South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin is the largest impact structure on the Moon. Such very large impact craters can potentially penetrate through the crust and sample the underlying lunar […]
Impact cratering from asteroids and comets is perhaps the most important process that shapes planet surfaces in the solar system, so it is important to know the rate of impact […]
China’s Chang’e 4 probe successfully landed on the far side of the Moon on Thursday, January 3, at 10:26 am (Beijing time). This is the first mission to land on […]
The farside South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin is the largest known impact structure on the Moon and is a hot spot for scientific and space exploration. In 2018, the Chinese Chang’e-4 […]
The lunar surface is covered by regolith that contains microscopically small, angular, and abrasive dust particles. A new study on simulants, carried out by Rachel Caston and colleagues at Stony Brook University, […]
Dear Colleagues, The journal Geosciences is accepting papers for a Special Issue related to recent advances in studies of the Moon. The deadline has been extended until the end of […]
Dear colleagues, We would like to invite you to submit an abstract to the European Planetary Science Congress 2018, EPSC 2018 (16–21 September 2018, Berlin, Germany), on the Session LSE1/TP15: […]
Unlike Earth, the Moon does not have a global magnetic field, but it does display regional magnetic anomalies. The magnetic carrier in lunar rocks is metallic iron, but indigenous lunar […]
Goddard has recently released a new Scientific Visualization Studio webpage focusing on the Moon and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data: Moon Phase and Libration, 2018. Beginning January 1, 2018, the page […]
In an effort to compare the relative rates of landform evolution on the Moon and Mercury, Caleb Fassett of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and his team measured the depth-to-diameter […]