Lunar glass samples tested by Rochester scientists were gathered during NASA’s 1972 Apollo 16 mission. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)
Lunar samples solve mystery of the moon’s supposed magnetic shield
In a paper in Science Advances, University researchers, leading a team of colleagues at seven other institutions, report their findings on a major factor that influences the types of resources that may be found on the moon when the Artemis mission lands in 2024: whether or not the moon has had a long-lived magnetic shield at any point in its 4.53 billion-year history.
The presence or absence of a shield matters because magnetic shields protect astronomical bodies from harmful solar radiation. And the team’s findings contradict some longstanding assumptions.
“This is a new paradigm for the lunar magnetic field,” says first author John Tarduno, the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and dean of research for Arts, Sciences & Engineering at Rochester.
The belief that the moon had a magnetic shield was based on an initial dataset from the 1970s that included analyses of samples collected during the Apollo missions. The analyses showed that the samples had magnetization, which researchers believed was caused by the presence of a geodynamo.
Tarduno and his colleagues tested glass samples gathered on previous Apollo missions, but used CO2 lasers to heat the lunar samples for a short amount of time, a method that allowed them to avoid altering the samples. They then used highly sensitive superconducting magnetometers to more accurately measure the samples’ magnetic signals.
The researchers determined that the magnetization in the samples could be the result of impacts from objects such as meteorites or comets—not the result of magnetization from the presence of a magnetic shield. Other samples they analyzed had the potential to show strong magnetization in the presence of a magnetic field, but didn’t show any magnetization, further indicating that the moon has never had a prolonged magnetic shield.
(Photo by J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester)
Adam Frank, the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor of Physics and Astronomy, has been awarded the 2021 Carl Sagan Medal for excellence in public communication in planetary science, presented by the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society. The award is named in honor of the late Cornell University astrophysicist, astronomer, and educator, who brought science to millions of people worldwide with his PBS series Cosmos and the 1980 book of the same name.
The DPS announcement recognizes Frank for “founding continuously sustained efforts and solid platforms from which science can be distributed to the public in an accessible form.”
Frank cofounded the National Public Radio’s 13.7 Cosmos and Culture blog, contributes frequently to the New York Times, and created the Coursera course “Confronting the Big Questions: Highlights of Modern Astronomy.” The 13.7blog, which Frank maintained for seven years and ended in April 2018, attracted more than 13 million yearly visits. Frank is a regular on-air commentator for NPR’s news show All Things Considered and contributes to other publications including The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Scientific American. Read more.
UR CTSI trainee and faculty pilot award recipients
Left to right: Bridget Young, David Fraser, and Angela Hewitt.
Each year, the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI) offers Pilot Awards of up to $25,000 for trainees and up to $50,000 for faculty to build a solid research foundation for subsequent fellowships and funding.
This year’s new awardees are:
Bridget Young, assistant professor of pediatric allergy/immunology and public health science, who is investigating the possible link between new fortifiers based on concentrates of pasteurized human breast milk that are added to mothers’ breast milk and reports of low blood glucose in their premature infants.
David Fraser, clinical assistant professor of dentistry and a trainee in the Translational Biomedical Science PhD program. He is developing a special hydrogel scaffold in which the stem cells, called periodontal ligament cells, can be embedded, to help address damage to the jaw bone and teeth caused by periodontitis.
Angela Hewitt, instructor of child neurology, is developing brain activity biomarkers to optimize deep brain stimulation for treatment of dystonia, a disorder that causes involuntary muscle contractions.
Last week’s issue incorrectly identified Daniel Lachant, assistant professor of pulmonary diseases and critical care, who is one of this year’s recipients of two-year KL2 Career Development Awards for early career clinical and translational scientists. We apologize for the error.
