A group of scientists have discovered several strange, dust-covered boulders on the moon. The Gamma Rainier region, initially thought to be a crater, turned out to be a flat spot, glittering brightly in the darkness of the vast lunar plain Oceanus Procellarum. The study was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets.
Lunar vortices like Rainier Gamma are thought to be formed by magnetized rocks that deflect particles from the solar wind. However, other theories suggest that they may have been created by the interaction of magnetic anomalies and electrically charged dust grains chased by micrometeorites.
To better understand these interactions, scientists led by planetologist Ottaviano Ruesch studied millions of images of the moon taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Eventually, they discovered a boulder that reflected light in a strange way, prompting further investigation.
“We recognized a boulder with characteristic dark areas in one image,” says Ruesch. “This stone was very different from all the others and reflected less light back to the sun.”
To identify such boulders, scientists used artificial intelligence, which sorted the strange boulders by size and reflectivity. The algorithm identified approximately 130,000 possible options, half of which were carefully studied.
Although some of the rocks were likely formed by a collision with the crater, scientists suspect their strange properties are due to the thin layer of dust that has built up on some of the boulders. The next step for scientists will be to use the research results to study the processes of formation of lunar vortices.
Currently, NASA and researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory are preparing to send a lunar lander to Gamma Rayner to study its magnetic anomalies. This mission is planned for 2024.
