For decades now, scientists have been baffled by the presence of rust on the Moon such rust or more accurately speaking, hematite, forms by oxidization a process dependent on oxygen and moisture of the oxygen or water is present on the Moon.

Earth’s Oxygen: A Journey Across Space

New research released in Geophysical Research Letters proposes that oxygen whose escape from the atmosphere of Earth could have travelled across space to make its way into the polar regions of the Moon. Simulations and laboratory experiments have shown that oxygen ions react with very specific minerals of the Moon particularly bearing iron converting them into hematite (Fe₂O₃). This takes place despite the Moon being under constant bombardment of hydrogen caused by the solar wind from the Sun which typically sto

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