--- title: "The Moon Turned Itself Inside Out, Scientists Confirm" description: "Scientists seem to have figured out why the Moon is made up of such weird heavy rocks — because, as they claim, it turned itself inside out. " date: "2024-04-13" modified: "2024-04-13" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/moon-turned-itself-inside-out" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Moon" - "Space" tags: - "lunar samples" - "moon" - "moon rocks" - "the digest" --- # The Moon Turned Itself Inside Out, Scientists Confirm ![Scientists seem to have figured out why the Moon is made up of such weird heavy rocks — because, as they claim, it turned itself inside out. ]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Small Bang Scientists seem to have figured out why the Moon is made up of such weird and heavy rocks: way back in the day, it turned itself inside out. For decades now, scientists have pretty much agreed that the [Moon formed]() from debris that flew off the young Earth when another planet smashed into it about 4.5 billion years. That cosmic wreckage "coalesced, cooled and solidified" to form the Moon as we know it today, researchers from the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory wrote in a [press release]() — but what happened next is something of a "choose-your-own adventure," as the scientists describe it. In a new paper [published in the journal *Nature Geoscience*](), the LPL researchers found that the surprisingly high concentration of titanium found in Moon rocks, such as those brought back during the Apollo mission in the 1970s, could be the result of heavy minerals like ilmenite, which is rich in both titanium and iron, initially sinking to the core and then rising back up to the surface. "Our moon literally turned itself inside out," declared LPL associate professor and paper co-author Jeff Andrews-Hanna. ## Hot To Go In its earliest days, the Moon was covered in a vast ocean of magma, the composition of which made the young world unstable. "Because these heavy minerals are denser than the mantle underneath, it creates a gravitational instability," explained Weigang Liang, the leader of the research and principal author. As such, "you would expect this layer to sink deeper into the moon's interior." For some reason, however, it appears that the titanium-rich rocks first mixed with the mantle, melted, and then came back up to the lunar surface. Pointing to a [2022 study]() conducted by Chinese researcher Nan Zhang — who is now a co-author on the recent paper — and hypothesizing that some past impact to the Moon may have pushed the titanium-heavy minerals to its core, Andrews-Hanna said that a "lightbulb went on." As with all theoretical explanations of off-world geology, it'll take further research and far more lunar rock sampling to get to the bottom of how Moon rocks got to be so heavy. But for now, the data does appear to line up. "Our analyses show that the models and data are telling one remarkably consistent story," Liang said of the research. "When the Artemis astronauts eventually land on the Moon to begin a new era of human exploration, we will have a very different understanding of our neighbor than we did when the Apollo astronauts first set foot on it." **More on Moon weirdness:** *[Congresswoman Makes Strange Claims About the Earth's Moon]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()