[2ndDivisionVet]

Didn't they think it was solid?

[Berlin_Freeper]

The moon rocks had to come from somewhere.

[blueplum]

what does this discovery do to the theory that a miniplanet once double-wammied the earth, the debris coagulated into a lump of mixed moon/earth rock, and began orbiting as the Moon? was/is there enough gravity on the Moon to birth a solid core out of collision debris?

[Islander7]

Hot cheese for your nachos!

[LukeL]

If it is liquid then it should have a magnetosphere, because the moon doesn’t, then this means that our understanding of how our magnetic field is generated is not complete.

[JSDude1]

I wonder how the billions of years folks will try to spin this?

[rusty millet]

I’ll bet at some point we find oil and natural gas reserves on the moon.

[cranked]

No...speculation was that the Moon was hollow given that it allegedly ‘rang like a bell’ back in 1969.

[agere_contra]

The moon appears (from the article) to have a solid iron core, and a liquid layer above that.

Four things could be keeping the centre of the moon hot enough for all this action:

Gravity (Tidal) heating
Magnetic heating
Radioactive heating
Initial frictional heat of formation + retention.

I’d have to guess that radioactive heating and initial frictional heat are the main components, just like in the Earth.

Heavier (radioactive) elements naturally shift in towards the core of planets and planetoids during planetary formation. They produce heat, and that heat has nowhere to go. The ‘hot’ area of the Moon is tiny compared with the Earths, but apparently enough to maintain a ~ 80 mile liquid zone.

[the invisib1e hand]

Velveeta.

[Dryman]

Isn’t the moons core where R.Daneel Olivaw lives?

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

[thatjoeguy]

40 years ago....

To think we’ve wasted billions of dollars looking for life out there when we could have spent that money MOVING life out there!!

What a waste of time and money.

[wendy1946]

I would not wish Nazism on anybody... But if Germany HAD won WW-II, the very latest date I could picture human feet having been on Mars would be around 1990 or thereabouts.

[Grizzled Bear]

Space Ping.