Planetary scientists sharing ideas and discoveries.

Planetary Science Research Discoveries (PSRD) is an educational site sharing the latest research being made by NASA-sponsored scientists on meteorites, planets, and other bodies in our Solar System. The website is supported by the Cosmochemistry Program of NASA's Science Mission Directorate and by Hawai'i Space Grant Consortium and is a vital link for planetary and space sciences, and for learning how science works.

Supported by NASA's Cosmochemistry Program and Hawai'i Space Grant Consortium.

Archive of Moon Articles

DATE POSTED	ARTICLES
21 DEC 09	Celebrated Moon Rocks by Linda M. V. Martel Overview and status of the Apollo lunar collection: A unique, but limited, resource of extraterrestrial material.	PSRD-Apollo-lunar-samples.pdf
18 SEPT 09	The Growing Diversity of Lunar Basalts by G. Jeffrey Taylor A lunar basaltic meteorite adds complexity to the already complicated story of mare basalt volcanism on the Moon.	PSRD-NWA032.pdf
25 MAR 09	Time to Solidify an Ocean of Magma by G. Jeffrey Taylor A small mineral grain places limits on how long it took the lunar magma ocean to solidify.	PSRD-magmaOceanSolidification.pdf
27 JAN 09	The Crazy Mixed-Up Lunar Crust by Linda M. V. Martel The horizontal and vertical distribution of well-mixed basin ejecta has lunar-wide geochemical ramifications.	PSRD-lunarBasins.pdf
22 SEPT 08	The Bone-Dry Moon Might be Damp by G. Jeffrey Taylor Cosmochemists have written in stone that the Moon is almost totally devoid of water, but new analyses of volcanic glasses suggest that they need to do some editing.	PSRD-MoonWater.pdf
29 APRIL 08	A Farside Geochemical Window into the Moon by Linda M. V. Martel Findings show geochemical enhancements in the Dewar region are caused by thorium-rich mare basalt fragments in the regolith.	PSRD-Dewar-Th.pdf
22 FEB 08	Compositional Balancing Before Moon Formation by G. Jeffrey Taylor The identical oxygen isotopic composition of Earth and Moon might be explained by exchange of material between the proto-Earth and the surrounding proto-lunar disk.	PSRD-EarthMoonFormation.pdf
19 DEC 07	Chips Off an Old Lava Flow by G. Jeffrey Taylor Lunar meteorite Kalahari 009 contains fragments of basalt about 4.35 billion years old, a record-breaking old age for mare basalt.	PSRD-cryptomareSample.pdf
19 JUNE 07	Oxidants from Pulverized Minerals by Linda M. V. Martel Laboratory measurements of hydrogen peroxide produced from crushed basaltic minerals immersed in water have important implications for Martian and lunar dust.	PSRD-H2O2.pdf
3 APRIL 07	Two Views of the Moon's Composition by G. Jeffrey Taylor There is a striking dichotomy in estimates of the abundance of refractory elements in the Moon.	PSRD-Moon2Views.pdf
8 NOV 06	Recent Gas Escape from the Moon by G. Jeffrey Taylor Gases may have escaped from the Moon as recently as a million years ago, implying that the lunar interior is not as lethargic as conventional wisdom dictates.	PSRD-MoonGas.pdf
24 AUG 06	Wandering Gas Giants and Lunar Bombardment by G. Jeffrey Taylor Outward migration of Saturn might have triggered a dramatic increase in the bombardment rate on the Moon 3.9 billion years ago, an idea testable with lunar samples.	PSRD-cataclysmDynamics.pdf
30 APRIL 06	Finding Basalt Chips from Distant Maria by G. Jeffrey Taylor Tossed chips of lava help fill in blanks in our knowledge of lunar basalts.	PSRD-basaltFragments.pdf
22 NOV 05	Gamma Rays, Meteorites, Lunar Samples, and the Composition of the Moon by G. Jeffrey Taylor Lunar meteorites provide ground truth to help calibrate orbital geochemical data, allowing an estimate of the composition of the entire Moon.	PSRD-MoonComposition.pdf
23 DEC 04	Cosmochemistry and Human Exploration by G. Jeffrey Taylor Cosmochemistry plays an important role in developing local resources on the Moon and Mars, essential to sustained human presence in space.	PSRD-spaceResources.pdf
10 DEC 04	Composition of the Moon's Crust by Linda M. V. Martel New empirical calibrations of Lunar Prospector and Clementine data yield improved global maps of Th, K, and FeO.	PSRD-LunarCrust.pdf
31 OCT 04	New Lunar Meteorite Provides its Lunar Address and Some Clues about Early Bombardment of the Moon by G. Jeffrey Taylor A newly discovered meteorite from the Moon provides a detailed record of its history, allowing scientists to make a reasonable guess about where it came from on the Moon and to test ideas for the timing of early impact bombardment.	PSRD-SaU169.pdf
28 SEPT 04	Lunar Crater Rays Point to a New Lunar Time Scale by Linda M. V. Martel Optical maturity maps of rays, derived from Clementine multispectral data and calibrated with lunar sample analyses, provide a new way to define the two youngest time stratigraphic units on the Moon.	PSRD-LunarRays.pdf
5 JULY 04	New Mineral Proves an Old Idea about Space Weathering by Linda M. V. Martel A newly discovered vapor-deposited iron silicide in a lunar meteorite has been named hapkeite.	PSRD-newMineral.pdf
21 APRIL 04	The Oldest Moon Rocks by Marc Norman Rocks from the lunar crust provide new clues to the age and origin of the Moon and the terrestrial planets.	PSRD-lunarAnorthosites.pdf
28 NOV 03	Hafnium, Tungsten, and the Differentiation of the Moon and Mars by G. Jeffrey Taylor Experiments help us understand the timing of core formation and nature of initial melting in the Moon and Mars.	PSRD-Hf-W.pdf
4 JUNE 03	The Moon's Dark, Icy Poles by Linda M. V. Martel Permanently shadowed regions on the Moon--where frozen water could be trapped--are more abundant and more widely distributed than originally thought.	PSRD-lunarShadows.pdf
8 OCT 02	The Moon Beyond 2002 by G. Jeffrey Taylor A meeting of lunar scientists to outline research questions and future exploration plans.	PSRD-moon.pdf
21 AUG 01	Uranus, Neptune, and the Mountains of the Moon by G. Jeffrey Taylor The tardy formation of Uranus and Neptune might have caused the intense bombardment of the Moon 3.9 billion years ago.	PSRD-bombardment.pdf
24 JAN 01	Lunar Meteorites and the Lunar Cataclysm by Barbara A. Cohen Dating of impact melts in lunar meteorites supports the idea that the Moon was intensely bombarded about 3.9 billion years ago.	PSRD-lunarCataclysm.pdf
5 DEC 00	Recipe for High-Titanium Lunar Magmas by G. Jeffrey Taylor Experiments shed light on how high-titanium lunar magmas formed.	PSRD-highTi.pdf
21 NOV 00	Mining the Moon, Mars, and Asteroids by G. Jeffrey Taylor Applied cosmochemistry plays a key role in plans to use the resources of the Moon, Mars, and asteroids.	PSRD-mining.pdf
31 AUG 00	A New Moon for the Twenty-First Century by G. Jeffrey Taylor Integrated studies of returned samples and remote sensing data reveal a Moon far different from the one scientists envisaged only a decade ago.	PSRD-newMoon.pdf
23 JUNE 00	The Surprising Lunar Maria by G. Jeffrey Taylor Global remote sensing data have given lunar scientists a startling new perspective of the titanium concentrations in the lava flows making up the lunar maria.	PSRD-lunarMaria.pdf
24 SEPT 99	The Moon at its Core by Linda M. V. Martel New evidence for a small lunar core strengthens the giant impact hypothesis for the origin of the Moon.	PSRD-MoonCore.pdf
21 APRIL 99	30th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference: Some Highlights by G. Jeffrey Taylor The annual LPSC featured bacteria, new views of the Moon, and an intriguing new meteorite.	PSRD-lpsc30.pdf
31 DEC 98	Origin of the Earth and Moon by G. Jeffrey Taylor First hand report of the December 1998 conference on the formation and very early history of the Earth and Moon.	PSRD-OriginEarthMoon.pdf
17 JULY 98	The Biggest Hole in the Solar System by G. Jeffrey Taylor Recent missions have helped researchers determine the composition of one of the largest impact craters in the Solar System: South Pole-Aitken basin.	PSRD-spa.pdf
20 OCT 97	Moonbeams and Elements. by G. Jeffrey Taylor The amount of light reflected off the Moon can be used to determine elemental abundances from orbit.	PSRD-MoonFeO.pdf
12 FEB 97	Explosive Volcanic Eruptions on the Moon. by Catherine M. Weitz How did deposits of fine-grained volcanic beads form on the Moon? Could these deposits supply oxygen and rocket fuel to future lunar colonists?	PSRD-MoonVolcanics.pdf
21 DEC 96	Ice on the Bone Dry Moon. by Paul D. Spudis Deposits of ice in the permanently dark regions near the south pole of the Moon could bootstrap a self-sustaining lunar colony.	PSRD-IceonMoon.pdf


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