Weber, Renee C.
Lin, Pei-Ying
Garnero, Edward J.
Williams, Quentin
Lognonné, Philippe
2011-01-20
Despite recent insight regarding the history and current state of the Moon from satellite sensing and analyses of limited Apollo-era seismic data, deficiencies remain in our understanding of the deep lunar interior. We reanalyzed Apollo lunar seismograms using array-processing methods to search for the presence of reflected and converted seismic energy from the core. Our results suggest the presence of a solid inner and fluid outer core, overlain by a partially molten boundary layer. The relative sizes of the inner and outer core suggest that the core is ~60% liquid by volume. Based on phase diagrams of iron alloys and the presence of partial melt, the core probably contains less than 6 weight % of lighter alloying components, which is consistent with a volatile-depleted interior.
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199375
oai:zenodo.org:1230912
Zenodo
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode
Seismic Detection of the Lunar Core
info:eu-repo/semantics/article