Something is moving inside of the Moon. Yes, you read that correctly.
Stop worrying, everyone. It’s just the Soup Dragon. She’s feeling moody and hasn’t been tending to the volcanic soup pools.
Major Clanger will soon have it all sorted out.
Or y’know… Bahamut.
We must mine the goo.
A recent study from scientists at NASA and the University of Arizona found that a layer of low-viscosity goo sits between the Moon’s rugged mantle and its metal core. This goo is rising and falling beneath the lunar surface — not unlike, say, ocean tides — which they concluded is likely caused by the gravitational push and pull of the Sun and Earth.
I wonder if it has to be a partial melt. We are finding that many asteroids are loosely bundled rocks. I wonder if maybe the moon has a similar structure. I have no clue how much pressure is under the surface and off it’s enough to fuse everything together.
Considering it’s at least semi-liquid, it’s definitely not just a loose clump of rocks. The moon is a lot bigger than asteroids, about 3500 km in diameter. Even the largest known asteroid is about 940 km in diameter. And every increase in diameter means a cubic increase in volume.
Is the statement that it is a semi-liquid more or less confirmed? That is what I’m saying.
Is the moon’s diameter and composition enough to create a semi-molten rock? Or could this phenomenon be better explained by a loose set of rocks, which also displays characteristics of a liquid when in movement.
A loose set of rocks could be described as a fluid, but not a liquid. But a cold cluster of rocks would not have fluid motion.
Regardless, the moon’s core temperature is estimated around 1400°C. This means liquid iron or solid or semisolid austenite depending on the presence of other elements, primarily carbon.
