Scientists Can't Explain Unknown Material on the Moon

[Music] the moon is the closest celestial body to our planet so it's no wonder that since ancient times astronomers have been fascinated with Earth's one and only natural satellite today modern technology allows scientists to explore the lunar surface from a farm and some of their findings are outright baffling like what is that huge and mysterious metal mass that's just been discovered in one of the moon's craters mm-hmm mysterious hunk anomalous clump or simply mass these are all the nicknames that I have in common with this strange object bestowed in the last couple of months since its discovery in April 2019 so far scientists have been struggling to explain where this giant lump of unidentified material came from or what it really is but let me back up and we'll start from the beginning on the far side of the Moon you'll find one of the largest and oldest impact craters in our solar system the South Pole Aitken basin unfortunately from here on earth you can only see its outer rim which looks like a huge chain of mountains so if you want to see the whole crater with your own eyes you'll need to gear up and head to the moon yourself on the bright side which we are the trip would be worth your time I bet you'd be awestruck by the ginormous eight mile deep dent stretching for more than 1,500 miles in diameter and covering a quarter of the moon's surface astronomers are sure that this crater appeared when an asteroid collided with the moon around four billion years ago and now imagine a gigantic chunk of metal almost the size of West Virginia as for its weight in pounds all I'll say is this number has a string of 17-0 it so yeah whatever it is it's huge and this mysterious metallic mass is buried 180 miles under the moon's surface somewhere in the middle of the South Pole Aiken Basin if it's so deep underground on a part of the moon you can't even see from Earth how did scientists manage to spot this mass well we've got technology to thank for that after Grail which stands for NASA's Gravity Recovery and interior laboratory mission had gathered a bunch of data on our natural satellite astronomers started to examine this information that's when one thing confused them the most in one place on the moon's surface yep it was that South Pole Aitken basin they saw a weird change in gravity after studying this unexpected phenomenon a bit more they concluded that there was a mysterious huge something weighing down the basin floor so far researchers haven't yet figured out the origin of the bizarre lump but there are several theories one of them claims that the finding is a chunk of dense oxides which likely appeared when the moon was just taking the shape it has now at that time our little satellite was still covered with ancient oceans of magma this humongous lump could have formed at the final stages of its cooling however most scientists support another theory that the puzzling mass is a part of the monstrosity that once created the very South Pole akin Basin itself since the thing is metallic it could be the iron nickel core of the asteroid or whatever it was that collided with the moon several billion years ago in any case the moon is good at keeping its secrets and researchers still haven't come to any final conclusion the only obvious thing is that the basin is a great natural laboratory where scientists can study disastrous impact events and the anomalous clump might tell us a lot more about both the moon and the history of the universe overall but wait did you think that the massive chunk of metal hiding deep under the moon's surface is the only lunar mystery out there well hang tight because I've got plenty more when phenomenon has been perplexing astronomers for decades since the 1950s to be precise and that's random flashes of light from the surface of the Moon they even have their own fancy nickname transient lunar phenomenon the flashes have no consistent pattern and occur totally at random sometimes astronomers observe them several times a week and at other times the flashes might disappear for months some of them last just a couple of minutes while others have gone on for hours explanations vary from likely moon quakes and meteors to the more bizarre alien theories but again the mystery is yet to be solved the good thing is that a new telescope might shed light on these strange flashes it'll be pointing at the moon's surface 24/7 recording videos and taking photos as soon as the phenomenon occurs the telescope has been set up in an observatory in Spain since the weather conditions there are best for observing the moon now a day before Apollo 11 landed on the lunar surface in 1969 the missions command module pilot Michael Collins reported that one area of the moon was more illuminated than the surrounding landscape he added that it looked as if the region had fluorescence to it the astronauts could clearly see a crater and they noticed that the area around it was weirdly bright is this phenomenon connected with the mysterious lunar flashes scientists are still at a loss to this day speaking of Apollo 11 the astronauts had a lot of problems with the moon's dust due to its unique texture as well as the low gravity this dust clung to everything even to the point of affecting the astronauts helmet visors and eroding their boots it turns out that the lunar dust is dangerous for people it's particles are incredibly sharp and when breathed in they can damage the brain and lungs beyond repair now small quakes often happen on the moon and they haven't been put down to one cause either some scientists believe that they're due to the gravitational pull our planet has on its natural satellite others claim that when the moon's crust moves heats up or gets hit by meteorites the seismic vibrations occur whatever the reason when a moonquake happened several miles beneath the surface it leaves ruptures and cracks that astronomers have even been able to record and there's this there might be a labyrinth of lava tunnels on the moon astronomers have discovered a massive cave under the lunar surface thanks to some topography data they recently got back around 30 miles long and 60 miles wide the giant moon cave might be the result of volcanic activity that happened there about 3 billion years ago streams of lava hardened creating a thick hard crust on the outside but inside it kept flowing melting the rock and creating tunnels and caves countless small pits in the moon's surface seem to be openings to these underground labyrinths if this theory gets confirmed the tunnels could serve as a convenient location for manned space missions as well as a much needed water source for astronauts now if you ever set foot on the moon you'll immediately notice that your shadow is much darker than it is on earth but this isn't an unsolved mystery on our planet the atmosphere scatters light in such a way that even objects that aren't in direct sunlight are still well-lit and visible but there is no air to scatter light on the moon so shadows are extremely dark and sunlit areas are exceptionally bright now don't feel bad but the moon is abandoning us every year its orbit moves about an inch and a half away from our planet at this rate in 500 million years the moon will be fourteen thousand six hundred miles further from Earth than it is now now despite all appearances the moon isn't a perfect sphere it might look like that when you glance at it hanging up there in the night sky but in fact the moon is shaped like an egg scientists have spent years trying to understand what forces helped mold such an unusual form one of the theories is that the moon's center of mass is a bit closer to Earth and it's geometric center which could have stretched it out to its egg-like shape or it could have been laid by a giant space chicken or not and finally how about this some scientists don't even agree that the moon is Earth's satellite first being around 1/4 the size of our planet the crater pock thing is just too big to be our moon besides it technically be incorrect to say that the moon orbits the earth in fact the dynamic duo sort of orbit each other kind of like when two people hold hands and spin around together but since the barycenter which in astronomy is the point a celestial object orbits around is located within the earth we feel as if the moon is orbiting our planet now have you heard about any other secrets the moon is keeping from us let me know down in the comments if you learned something new today then get this video a like and share it with a friend but hey don't go moonwalking just yet we have over 2,000 cool videos for you to check out all you have to do is pick the left or right video click on it and enjoy stay on the bright side of life

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 758,540

Rating: 4.8026614 out of 5

Keywords: outer space, the universe, space, planets, stars, astronomy, astrophysics, space facts, recent discoveries, solar system, facts about the Universe, fun science, the Earth, bizarre phenomena, the galaxy, the Moon, lunar dust, the Moon's surface, Apollo 11, lava tunnels on the Moon, satellites

Id: kMMd_frv3_c

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 24 2019