- 1 hour ago
For decades, the Moon looked calm and boring — but that was a lie. Astronaut data and new measurements revealed surprising layers hidden deep inside it. In this video, we break down what scientists finally learned about the Moon’s core and why it matters for Earth. Some of the discoveries completely changed old theories. Don’t miss this video if you think the Moon is just a dead rock. Animation is created by Bright Side.
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Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
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For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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FunTranscript
00:00Okay, I officially give up on the hope that the moon is made of cheese, after all.
00:06Wow, not even Gouda.
00:07The shiny lunar ball, or a curved banana, or half of a coin, depending on what phase it's in,
00:13has different layers inside, just like Earth.
00:16One of these layers is called the inner core.
00:19About 20 years ago, scientists were observing how the moon rotates.
00:23Using that data, they concluded that it had a fluid outer core.
00:27But the inner core was hard to study.
00:30So, they didn't know if it was solid like a rock, or molten like a hot liquid.
00:34But things are clearer now.
00:37Astronomers have collected data from different missions, including the Apollo missions,
00:41where astronauts went to the moon and gathered information themselves.
00:45Plus, they've used a special technique called seismic data.
00:49This method is all about studying how sound waves move through things.
00:53Take earthquakes on our planet as an example.
00:55When an earthquake happens, it creates waves that travel through the ground.
01:00Scientists can detect and analyze these waves to learn more about Earth's interior.
01:05The same idea can apply to other objects in our solar system.
01:08Or planets, or in this case, the moon.
01:11When quakes or moon quakes happen, they generate sound waves.
01:15And by carefully listening to and studying these waves, scientists can create a detailed map of what's inside the object.
01:23They can figure out things like different layers, what they're made of, and how they're arranged.
01:29To check the moon's deep interior, scientists also use something called laser ranging.
01:34This method measures the distance between the surface of the Earth and the moon very precisely.
01:40And ta-da!
01:41Our natural satellite's inner core is a dense, solid ball made of iron, just like Earth's.
01:48It's about 310 miles wide, which is nearly 15% the size of the entire moon.
01:53Researchers also have stumbled upon evidence that supports the theory that the layer between the moon's surface and its core, called the mantle, has been moving around as the moon evolved over time.
02:05This movement is something we call lunar mantle overturn.
02:09And it could explain why we find elements rich in iron on the lunar surface.
02:15Mantle material ends up being carried upward.
02:17And the volcanic rock remains in the moon's crust.
02:20Some of the materials in this rock were too dense, like me.
02:26So they just sank back through the lighter crust material all the way to the core mantle boundary.
02:31It's like a cycle where the moon's mantle material goes up during volcanic activity, carries iron-rich elements to the surface, and then sinks back down.
02:42There's another mystery scientists have been trying to solve.
02:45What caused the moon's magnetic field to weaken and nearly disappear over time?
02:50It seems that now that we know about the iron core and the global mantle overturn,
02:56we might get some more answers about the moon's magnetic field.
02:59Knowing what the inner core is like can help us better understand the moon's history, as well as the history of our entire solar system.
03:06Now, one of the theories that's widely accepted about the origin of the moon says there was a massive collision between Earth, in its early stages, and another mysterious object in our solar system.
03:18It's called the Large Impact Theory.
03:21And this collision was so strong, it ripped off a big chunk of the primitive molten Earth.
03:26I mean, not so big compared to what's left.
03:29If you put a U.S. nickel next to a green pea, you get a good idea of how big our planet is compared to the moon.
03:36Now, this chunk was set into orbit around our planet.
03:39And this might have happened about 95 million years after our solar system formed.
03:44The object that collided with Earth could have been about 10% the mass of our home planet and roughly the size of Mars.
03:53Well, it makes sense. Earth and the moon do have similar compositions, after all.
03:58Of course, there are other ideas about how the moon formed.
04:01One says that the gravitational force of our planet captured it.
04:05This means that the moon was just an object innocently passing by when suddenly it got attracted and pulled into Earth's orbit.
04:15There's even a hypothesis that Earth stole the moon from Venus.
04:18In that case, the moon shouldn't complain.
04:22I guess the view is way better here.
04:24So yeah, the moon and Earth are similar when it comes to rocks and some minerals.
04:28But the moon doesn't have the same atmosphere as our planet.
04:31It's atmosphere is thin and consists of some weird gases that include potassium and sodium,
04:37which is not something you can find in the atmosphere of Mars, Venus, or Earth.
04:42And the rocks on the moon don't contain water.
04:45But that doesn't mean there's no water at all up there.
04:48A long time ago, in the 17th century, astronomers saw large, dark spots on the moon's surface.
04:55One of these astronomers thought these spots looked like oceans.
04:58And he called them maria, which means seas in Latin.
05:02Other astronomers also made maps of the moon, and they used the term maria to describe these dark spots.
05:08For example, Mere Tranquillitatis translates to Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 made its touchdown.
05:16But it seems those dark spots are not actually oceans.
05:20They are plains made of hardened lava that erupted long ago.
05:23These volcanic eruptions left behind smooth, flat areas called basalt plains.
05:30In the late 1800s, one sky watcher studied the moon and found it didn't have an atmosphere.
05:37Without an atmosphere, there are no clouds and no air to keep water from evaporating.
05:42So scientists thought that any water on the moon would just disappear right away.
05:47They believed the moon was totally dry.
05:49But then, in 1961, one physicist had a different idea.
05:55He pointed out there could be water on the moon in special areas called permanently shadowed regions.
06:02These are spots on the moon where the sun doesn't shine, so they stay dark all the time.
06:08Water ice could exist in these dark areas because they're extremely cold and the ice wouldn't evaporate.
06:14But when astronauts from the Apollo missions went to the moon, they brought back soil samples,
06:20and scientists found no signs of water in them.
06:23So everyone went back to thinking that the moon was completely dry.
06:27In the 90s, NASA focused on these shadowed craters and found high concentrations of hydrogen,
06:34which meant there could be ice at the moon's poles.
06:36They still weren't certain, so they kept digging and, after a while,
06:40found hydrogen trapped inside tiny beads of volcanic glass.
06:45Since there are no active volcanoes on the moon today,
06:48which means water probably was present on the moon when these volcanoes erupted long ago.
06:54Plus, there could be way more water back in the early days of our moon.
06:59In 2020, NASA's SOFIA mission showed us what we'd been looking for for a really long time.
07:05There is water on the moon, after all.
07:08It turns out the water is hidden within the grains of lunar dust
07:12or sticking to the surface in the sunlit areas of the moon.
07:15So there are no oceans like we have on Earth, but at least there's something.
07:21The question remains, how did water even get there?
07:24It seems the moon had a chaotic history back at the time when it was forming,
07:29as probably most of the planets and moons in our solar system.
07:32So there is some evidence that water came there from comets hitting its surface back in the old days.
07:38Or maybe even keeps on coming from those that are slamming into the moon right now.
07:44We're talking about a chaotic situation where icy micrometeorites collide with the moon's surface,
07:51and dust then makes an even bigger mess when interacting with the solar wind.
07:55But we're waiting to find out more about this.
07:58Because, as we all know, when you mention water, you also inevitably talk about life.
08:05That's why we want to know more, for instance, about all that ice hidden in polar craters on the moon.
08:11Maybe it can teach us more about how life developed on Earth.
08:15Maybe comets brought all the necessary elements here.
08:18Then, what if there are some of those elements stuck in the ice on the moon, too?
08:23Hmm.
08:30This is a typical crater on the moon.
08:33It's here because, once upon a time, an asteroid crashed right into it.
08:38Yep, a lunar crater forms when an asteroid, meteoroid, or a comet slams into the moon's surface.
08:44And, as you can see, it's happened a lot.
08:47But one crater formed in a very different way.
08:50But then, how did it form?
08:53Well, let's rewind a bit.
08:55There's a widely accepted hypothesis that the moon itself is a product of collision,
09:00just like all these craters.
09:02But that collision was way, way tougher.
09:05It happened over 4.5 billion years ago,
09:09when a huge Mars-sized planet called Theia crashed into Earth.
09:13That event threw a bunch of debris into orbit.
09:17Eventually, it came together to form the moon.
09:20Now, for a while after that, the moon was basically a giant ball of lava.
09:24But because the early moon was very close to Earth,
09:27our planet's gravity kept squeezing it, making it even hotter.
09:32In the end, though, the moon drifted farther away,
09:36cooled down, and formed a rocky crust.
09:38Now, moving on, about 4.3 billion years ago,
09:43an asteroid the size of a small country, like Nepal,
09:47way bigger than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs,
09:49slammed into the moon's far side.
09:52It left an enormous crater called the South Pole-Akin Basin.
09:56It's up to 5 miles deep and about 1,500 miles wide.
10:01For comparison, that's roughly the distance from New York to Dallas,
10:05and deep enough to swallow Mount Everest.
10:08Now, scientists think that impact may have dug up
10:10and scattered some ancient stuff from deep inside the moon.
10:14A mixture of materials nicknamed CREEP,
10:17short for potassium, rare earth elements, and phosphorus.
10:21It's like a chemical time capsule from when the moon was still a lava ocean.
10:27Now, you'll want to know the reason why this area
10:29could be even more scientifically interesting than we realized.
10:33You see, until recently,
10:35researchers believed the asteroid came from the south,
10:39slamming upward and spreading a bunch of radioactive material,
10:43that very CREEP, around the crater's northern rim.
10:46But, after looking closer,
10:49scientists realized the impact actually came from the north,
10:53which means all that valuable CREEP ended up on the southern edge instead.
10:57And guess what?
10:59NASA's Artemis 3 mission happens to be targeting that exact southern region.
11:05Researchers started questioning the old southern impact theory
11:09when they compared the moon's crater with others across the solar system,
11:13mainly Mars' Helles Basin and Pluto's Sputnik Basin.
11:18Here they are.
11:18See?
11:19All three have this bizarre teardrop or avocado shape,
11:24wide on one side and pointy on the other.
11:26And exactly that pointy end usually shows which direction the asteroid came from.
11:33In the case of the South Pole-Aitken Basin,
11:35that means the asteroid hit from the north, not from the south.
11:39To confirm it,
11:41scientists dug into old data from NASA's Lunar Prospector mission.
11:45It orbited the moon in 1998 to 1999.
11:48That spacecraft measured radioactive elements on the surface
11:53and found high concentrations of thorium,
11:56a key part of CREEP,
11:58around the basin's southwestern rim.
12:00Now, the Artemis 3 mission is NASA's big plan to put humans back on the moon
12:05for the first time since 1972.
12:08If everything goes according to schedule,
12:11the launch is set for mid-2027,
12:14right after Artemis 2 wraps up.
12:16See, Artemis 2, which is supposed to launch before April 2026,
12:22will be sort of a dress rehearsal.
12:24Astronauts will orbit the moon without landing
12:27just to make sure that all the systems work smoothly.
12:31A cosmic test drive.
12:33Artemis 3 is where things are going to get real.
12:37The astronauts are expected to land near the moon's south pole
12:40in one of nine possible locations NASA has scouted out.
12:44The only problem is timing.
12:47Artemis 3 has already been delayed a few times,
12:50and so has Artemis 2.
12:52Artemis 1 launched in 2022.
12:55It was an uncrewed test flight that went around the moon
12:58and came back just fine.
13:00So, next up is Artemis 2,
13:02which will take real astronauts further into space.
13:06Then comes Artemis 3, the big one.
13:09Astronauts are supposed to hang out on the lunar surface for about a week
13:14doing science-y stuff before heading home.
13:17After that, Artemis 4 and 5 will build and expand
13:21a new mini-space station orbiting the moon.
13:24It's called Gateway.
13:26Think of it as a pit stop in space.
13:29Astronauts can dock there,
13:30live for short missions,
13:32do experiments,
13:32and prepare for landings.
13:35NASA's building it with help from the European Space Agency,
13:38Japan,
13:39and a few others.
13:40The astronauts are going to travel in the Orion spacecraft,
13:44launched by NASA's Space Launch System,
13:47a massive rocket taller than the Statue of Liberty,
13:50and strong enough to fling people to the moon.
13:53To actually land,
13:54they'll use the human landing system.
13:57SpaceX's Starship is supposed to take the first cruise down to the moon's surface
14:01once it proves it can land safely.
14:04In the long run,
14:05NASA's not going to stop at the moon.
14:08The big goal is moon to Mars.
14:11Hopefully, we can use everything we learned from Artemis
14:14to build a lunar base
14:15and eventually send humans all the way to Mars.
14:19And who knows?
14:21Maybe when people land on the moon,
14:22they'll be able to figure out another unsolved mystery.
14:26Flickers, glows, or beams of light
14:28that sometimes illuminate our satellite.
14:32Let's dig deeper into this mystery, shall we?
14:35On the night of April 19th, 1787,
14:40astronomer William Herschel spotted something weird.
14:43A bright light glowing on the dark part of the new moon.
14:47It shone for hours
14:48and was almost as bright as the Orion Nebula.
14:51What he saw probably
14:53was what scientists now call
14:55a transient lunar phenomenon or TLP.
14:59Basically, quick little flashes
15:01or color changes on the moon's surface.
15:04TLPs can look like glowing patches,
15:06reddish or purple spots,
15:08or even hazy clouds that suddenly appear
15:11and fade away.
15:12Over the last 2,000 years,
15:14people have recorded around 3,000
15:17of these strange moon flashes
15:19using telescopes, cameras,
15:21or sometimes just their own sharp eyes.
15:24So what's really going on up there?
15:27Well, there's no single answer.
15:29Lots of different things can cause TLPs,
15:32from meteor impacts to gas releases,
15:35or even electrical activity.
15:37The length of the flash,
15:39which can last anywhere from a split second
15:41to several hours,
15:43gives scientists clues
15:44about what's behind
15:45each mysterious lunar light show.
15:48The super short flashes,
15:50lasting less than a minute,
15:51are most likely caused by tiny space rocks
15:54crashing into the moon.
15:56Even a meteoroid,
15:57the weight of a billiard ball,
15:59can hit the lunar surface hard enough
16:00to make it glow for a split second.
16:03The heat from the impact makes rocks shine
16:05and then quickly fade as they cool down.
16:09For a long time,
16:10scientists suspected these quick flashes
16:12were caused by meteor hits.
16:14But they couldn't prove it
16:16until the 1990s,
16:17when high-speed cameras
16:19finally became common in lunar research.
16:22Even then,
16:23it wasn't easy to confirm.
16:25Short flashes could have just been
16:26camera glitches or electric noise.
16:29The only way to be sure
16:31was to catch the same flash
16:32from two or more places at once.
16:35Well, that happened for the first time
16:37during the Leonid meteor shower
16:39in 1999,
16:41when scientists recorded
16:42real impact flashes on the moon.
16:45Later, we got more proof
16:46that the moon was often peppered
16:48with space rocks.
16:49While the flashes seem to cluster
16:51in certain areas,
16:52like Oceanus Procellerum,
16:54one of the moon's big, dark planes,
16:57that's likely just because
16:58of where scientists have focused
17:00their cameras.
17:00A 2024 study showed that meteoroids
17:04actually hit the moon
17:05evenly everywhere.
17:07Now, flashes that last a few minutes
17:09are probably caused by something
17:11totally different.
17:12Gas leaks from inside the moon itself.
17:16Studies from 2008 and 2009
17:18found that when gas like radon
17:20builds up under the lunar surface,
17:22it can suddenly burst out.
17:24Hey, I know how that feels.
17:25And when this radioactive gas
17:28escapes and decays,
17:29it gives off a faint glow
17:31we can see from Earth.
17:33Interestingly,
17:34those glowing spots
17:35often line up with areas
17:37where scientists have already found
17:39higher radon levels.
17:41Then, there are the long-haul lights.
17:44They stick around for hours,
17:45like the bright glow
17:46William Herschel saw back in 1787.
17:50A 2012 study suggested
17:51those could actually be caused
17:53by solar wind,
17:55a stream of charged particles
17:56coming from the sun.
17:58When that solar wind
17:59hits lunar dust,
18:00it can charge up the particles
18:02and toss them into the air,
18:04well, into space,
18:05creating massive dust clouds
18:07up to 60 miles high.
18:09These floating clouds
18:10might bend or reflect light
18:12from stars or planets nearby,
18:14making it look like
18:15the moon itself is glowing.
18:17So hopefully,
18:18we'll get the answers
18:19once the Artemis mission
18:21lands and starts its exploration.
18:23Hey, I can hardly wait.
18:28That's it for today.
18:29So hey,
18:30if you pacified your curiosity,
18:31then give the video a like
18:33and share it with your friends.
18:34Or if you want more,
18:35just click on these videos
18:36and stay on the bright side.
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