New topographic maps of the Moon may help explain mysterious, bright “swirls” dotting the lunar surface that have baffled scientists for decades.
Lunar vortices are areas of contrasting light and dark streaks that span the Moon’s surface, and occur in all kinds of terrain, from visibly dark regions known as mares to brighter highlands. Now, contrary to what scientists previously thought, new evidence recently published Planetary Science Journal, It suggests that lunar eddies are actually related to topography, meaning that bright features occur at different elevations from their dark surroundings.
“Lunar vortexes have intrigued scientists since their discovery, in part because the scientific community does not fully understand how they form,” John Weirich, a senior researcher at the Institute, said in a statement. planetary of science
Many theories have been put forward to explain the cause of these strange features: magnetic anomalies shielding the lunar surface from the solar wind, impacts from asteroids or comets, etc. But none of these ideas fully explain the phenomenon we see. As a result, scientists decided to include one more factor in their assessment: relief, the location of geographical objects on the Moon’s surface.
“The canonical interpretation of lunar vortices is that topography does not affect the location or shape of the vortex,” Weirich said. However, in 2022, planetary scientists used data from NASA’s Lunar Orbiter to investigate a specific lunar vortex in the Mare Ingenii region on the far side of the Moon. They found that the bright areas were on average several meters lower than the surrounding dark vortex trails.
Weirich’s work revealed a similar trend in another vortex. Rainer’s Gammawhere bright areas are approximately 13 feet (4 meters) lower than dark areas. “Finding a relationship with topography in one location of the vortex may be just a coincidence, but finding it in two very different regions of the vortex is harder to rule out,” Weyrich said. “This is especially hard to ignore because Rainer Gamma is the archetype of the Lunar Vortex.”
Why might eddies be more common in lower regions? It is possible that bright moon dust was transported into these depressions and valleys by an unknown process. Researchers write in their study that these may have been removed by a meteor impact or moved by static electricity, which is abundant on the lunar surface, increasing the reflection of these areas.
While this new study doesn’t definitively answer how lunar vortexes arise, it does show that topography may be a piece of the puzzle. “Unusual objects or events are sometimes the key to deeper knowledge,” Weirich said. “That’s why lunar vortices are so interesting. And the fact that they look really cool.”
Source: Port Altele
