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Moon and Asteroids

3 December 2021
Astronomy

At https://phys.org/news/2021-11-asteroid-material-deposited-large-impacts…. … the moon, we are told, has no core dynamo or magnetic field. However, spacecraft have detected numerous strong localised magnetic fields in the crust of the moon. This is a mystery to mainstream and therefore demands an explanation. Hence, the research. These local fields, we are told, are antipodal to large impact basins – or what are thought to be impact basins. Are they simply finding a solution in order to solve a mystery? However, the research is interesting, to say the least. Impact simulations, on a computer, are to have shown that during oblique impacts ejected material piles up at the impact antipodes. It can reach several hundred metres thick. Is that on the computer or on the ground? Most of the piled up material is derived from the impactor – asteroid or meteor. It may contain iron that became magnetised. As such, it is capable of recording the moon's magnetic field. Extrapolating this information they established the moon had a strong magnetic field 4 billion years – as a result of a bombardment. Is the bombardment idea itself a theory?

At https://phys.org/news/2021-11-killer-asteroids-abound-nasa-ready.html … one to keep you awake – or send one to sleep. It starts off with the Chelyabinsk meteor exploding high in the atmosphere back in February of 2013. It was composed of rock and iron. Did it have an origin in a comet? It was a violent reminder that earth periodically interacts with lots of cosmic debris. Most of them remain undocumented. After years of study NASA has launched a further search for potential killer asteroids, as it has become clear, disaster might drop out of the sky unexpectedly. The DART mission has been set in motion – on November 23rd. The idea is to explore the possibility of diverting an asteroid on a collision course.

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