This is an picture of the Lunar Prospector spacecraft, which was used to
determine the size of the Moon's core.
Click on image for full size
Image courtesy of NASA
Earth's Moon--A Chip Off The Old Block?
News story originally written on March 19, 1999
Scientists have used data from the
Lunar
Prospector spacecraft to determine that the
Moon has a small core. This
finding supports the
formation theory that
the Moon was once part of
Earth and was
ejected following a large
impact.
"This impact occurred after the Earth's iron core had formed, ejecting
rocky, iron-poor material from the outer shell into orbit," explained Dr.
Alan Binder, principal investigator for Lunar Prospector. "It was this
material that collected to form the Moon."
Lunar Prospector used gravity measurements to determine the size of the
Moon's core. It contains less than
four percent of the Moon's mass. The
Earth's core on the
other hand contains 30 percent of our planet's mass.
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