Evidence of Earth’s Atmosphere May Be Hidden in Moon Rocks

Recent research suggests that ancient lunar rocks could hold the oldest evidence of Earth’s early atmosphere. Although the Moon hasn’t had a magnetic field for 4.36 billion years, it may have preserved fragments of Earth’s past atmosphere, providing insights that Earth’s own rocks cannot due to geological activity.
Moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts 50 years ago show traces of magnetism, initially suggesting that the Moon once had a magnetic field. However, recent findings reveal that any magnetic protection lasted only during the Moon’s first 140 million years. Without a magnetic field, the Moon could have captured ions from Earth’s atmosphere 4.36 billion years ago, preserving ancient atmospheric records that are now lost on Earth.
Earth’s early rocks have been altered by tectonic activity, but the Moon’s geologically stable surface may still contain undisturbed layers of ancient soil, or regolith, that could provide direct measurements of Earth’s earliest atmospheric conditions. This discovery opens new avenues to understand Earth’s atmospheric evolution, which remains a mystery due to the lack of Hadean-era rocks on Earth.

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