Abstract
RECENT observations and studies of the lunar surface based on Apollo and Explorer flights1 show that some rocks brought to Earth are magnetized, that there are on the Moon weak, local, fairly randomly oriented magnetic fields but no overall poloidal field, that the magnetic perturbation of the solar wind by the surface of the Moon as observed by lunar orbiters is concentrated at latitudes lower than about 40° (ref. 2) and, finally, that the chemistry of the surface suggests high present and past radioactivity3. Here I propose a model, based on these observations, which may lead to the understanding of the origin of lunar magnetism a few billion years ago.
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SMOLUCHOWSKI, R. Lunar Tides and Magnetism. Nature 242, 516–517 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/242516a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/242516a0
