00:04The Reiner Gamma Lunar Swirl is sort of an anomaly on the Moon.
00:07It was once believed to be a crater, but experts eventually realized it did not cast a shadow.
00:12They also began to notice that it actually shines in what would otherwise be a relatively dark area of the
00:17lunar surface,
00:18meaning it's likely reflective.
00:20Reflective lunar material isn't completely novel, but it is relatively rare,
00:24and this material is surrounded by a darker regolith making things even stranger.
00:28Experts long believe the darker surface material is likely a pocket of magnetized rock
00:32that deflects solar particles shielding it from the sun.
00:35This could darken the area through chemical reactions, sort of like weathering on Earth,
00:39but without an atmosphere.
00:40That's the leading theory.
00:42But to test it, researchers looked at more than 60,000 boulders sorted by AI, which had similar properties.
00:47They found that it's possible that instead, there may be a thin layer of dust covering these large rocks,
00:52interacting with magnetic properties in the Moon itself.
00:55They say the dust could have been thrown skyward by a meteor or comet impact,
00:59and then settled after a time.
01:01They say this could be a clue about the Moon's magnetic history,
01:04something scientists have long wondered about.
