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Buried Volcano Under the Dewar Swirl Hints at an Ancient Lunar Dynamo
Key Takeaways
- Researchers from ETH Zurich, DLR and the Institute of Applied Geosciences say they have resolved a decades-long debate over whether the Moon ever had a magnetic dynamo.
- The study focuses on the Dewar swirl, an isolated feature on the lunar far side northwest of the South Pole–Aitken basin that hosts both a magnetic and a gravitational anomaly.
- Dewar is classified as a cryptomare, an ancient basalt deposit hidden under impact debris, and it sits atop a geochemical hotspot rich in iron oxide, titanium dioxide, thorium and pyroxene.
- Gravity and magnetic data from GRAIL, Lunar Prospector and Kaguya were combined and inverted using an information theory technique called variation of information.
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DT Editorial Team··via universetoday.com