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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.
(Score: 2) by srobert on Tuesday July 24 2018, @08:46PM (6 children)
Yeah. It's been a long 3.5 billion years. But any day now, we'll figure out how to get that lunar atmosphere back and start building those condos. Bound to be cheaper than San Francisco. Those things will start selling like hotcakes and then I'll be saying, "So who looks foolish now, huh?".
(Score: 4, Interesting) by melikamp on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:03PM
We don't need atmosphere, it would be much easier and safer to dig in.
With temperature -16 C just below the surface, and 1700 K at the core, the moon probably warms up to the melting point of water just a few hundred meters down, if not a few dozen. So there is liquid water there, and we also know there are caves, some of them sealed off, potentially allowing for permanent liquid water lakes and some air buildup. We also have recent evidence of tectonic activity, which means the Moon is still active, so some of these caves may even have volcanic activity present, like gas vents or whatnot. For my money, the chances of finding bacteria on the Moon look better than ever :)
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:18PM (4 children)
Well that reminds me of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. Whoever does get to the moon is going to have the advantage over the entire Earth pretty much. It costs almost nothing in terms of energy to launch shipping containers from the surface, and putting them into a trajectory to hit part of the Earth is rather trivial. The moment it starts getting interesting I predict an arms race with the major countries establishing military presence, treaties be damned.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by srobert on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:40PM
Yep, when it gets interesting. They'll come begging to buy my land, sea front property on the Sea of Tranquility.
(Score: 2) by J053 on Tuesday July 24 2018, @10:05PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @11:19PM (1 child)
What are you shipping? I think the novelty gift of lunar soil will quickly saturate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @01:17AM
Moon bongs will be the only acceptable type of bongs for a long time. Who wants to smoke out of dirty earth glass bong with all it's bad vibes.