Planetary scientists sharing ideas and discoveries.

Planetary Science Research Discoveries (PSRD) is an educational site sharing the latest research by NASA-sponsored scientists on meteorites, asteroids, planets, moons, and other materials 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.

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Archive of Moon Articles

Articles listed by publication date.

DATE POSTED	HEADLINE ARTICLES	PDF VERSIONS
10 DEC 2012	Zinc Isotopes Provide Clues to Volatile Loss During Moon Formation by G. Jeffrey Taylor Ratios of zinc isotopes indicate evaporation of zinc (and other volatiles) during formation of the Moon.
JULY 2012	Lunar Rock Densities by Linda M. V. Martel CosmoSparks Report - Measuring rock properties of density and porosity for geophysical modeling of the Moon.
28 JUNE 2012	Leftovers from Ancient Lunar Impactors by Linda M. V. Martel and G. Jeffrey Taylor A systematic search for meteorite fragments in ancient regolith breccias confirms chondritic impactors on the Moon.
30 MAY 2012	Titanium Isotopes Provide Clues to Lunar Origin by G. Jeffrey Taylor The titanium isotopic mix is essentially identical in Earth and Moon, important new information with implications for the origin of the planets.
DEC 2011	It's Not All Basalt on the Moon: Another Kind of Volcanic Rock by Linda M. V. Martel CosmoSparks Report - Looking at non-mare silicic volcanism.
8 AUG 2011	Crystallizing the Lunar Magma Ocean by G. Jeffrey Taylor Lab experiments help test ideas for the Moon's chemical composition and how its crust formed.
JUNE 2011	Looking After and Preserving NASA's Extraterrestrial Samples by Linda M. V. Martel CosmoSparks Report - The work of NASA's Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office.
OCT 2010	An Icy Treat by Linda M. V. Martel CosmoSparks Report - Water ice confirmed on the Moon.
30 SEPT 2010	Unraveling the Origin of the Lunar Highlands Crust by Linda M. V. Martel Lunar meteorites contain clasts that may plausibly be samples of post-magma-ocean plutons that helped build the highlands crust.
AUG 2010	Putting a Damper on the Damp Moon by G. Jeffrey Taylor CosmoSparks Report - Measurements of chlorine isotopes in lunar samples.
1 JULY 2010	Damp Moon Rising by G. Jeffrey Taylor Cosmochemists find more evidence for water inside the Moon, showing that it is not the bone-dry place we thought.
17 FEB 2010	How Young is the Lunar Crater Giordano Bruno? by Linda M. V. Martel High-resolution images are used to determine how recently this crater formed, a mere 832 years ago or over a million years ago.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
8 OCT 02	The Moon Beyond 2002 by G. Jeffrey Taylor A meeting of lunar scientists to outline research questions and future exploration plans.
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.
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.
5 DEC 00	Recipe for High-Titanium Lunar Magmas by G. Jeffrey Taylor Experiments shed light on how high-titanium lunar magmas formed.
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.
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.
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.
23 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.

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