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posted by martyb on Tuesday July 24 2018, @08:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-about-the-cheese? dept.

Earth's Moon Could Have Been Habitable 3.5 Billion Years Ago

A new paper by Ian Crawford from the University of London and myself [Dirk Schulze-Makuch], just published in the journal Astrobiology [open, DOI: 10.1089/ast.2018.1844] [DX], claims that Earth's Moon might have been habitable about one billion years after its formation, when pools of liquid water may have existed on the lunar surface. Today, of course, the Moon has no atmosphere and no liquid water. It's uninhabitable and certainly lifeless. But 3.5 billion years ago, a billion years after it formed, the lunar environment was quite different.

During this period of extreme outgassing from lunar magma, the Moon is estimated to have had an atmospheric pressure of 10 millibar, or one percent of Earth's current atmosphere. This is thicker than the current atmosphere on Mars, and would have been substantial enough for liquid water to pool on the lunar surface, perhaps for many millions of years.

Combine this with recent findings that lunar rocks are more water-rich than previously thought [DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2845] [DX], and we can hypothesize that lakes, even an ocean, could have stably existed on the Moon for a substantial amount of time. There is also evidence that the early Moon had a magnetic field [DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2010.08.012] [DX], which might have partially protected its surface from solar and cosmic radiation. This would have resulted in a temporarily habitable world, at a time when life on Earth had already gained a foothold.

Also at Motherboard and Astronomy Magazine.


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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:00PM (4 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:00PM (#711913) Journal

    All are temporarily habitable. Even the one we are currently on.

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    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by edIII on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:13PM

    by edIII (791) on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:13PM (#711926)

    Except Europa. Attempt no landing there.

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    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:45PM (2 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:45PM (#711960)

    > All are temporarily habitable. Even the one we are currently on.

    "Hold my beer and watch this!" President Trump.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @11:16PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @11:16PM (#712017)

      I'm still waiting on the dissolution of congress.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Tuesday July 24 2018, @11:29PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday July 24 2018, @11:29PM (#712026)

        As long as they harmlessly rubber-stamp, and only the Democrats or quitting/dying Republicans dare to denounce Trump, then they can stay.

        If the Dems win the midterms (IF), then Muller will get fired, and the thought of disbanding Congress will cross someone's mind, stop, turn around, cross again, stop there, setup shop, grow a nice little hate business, wave a twitter war with actual lawyers, and may or may not win. Cable News profits should be good this year.