Abstract
THE first detailed chemical analysis of lunar rocks1 has renewed interest in the problem of the origin of the Moon. Although many controversies revolve around this question, it is reasonable to begin with the hypothesis that the Moon was originally formed from a cloud of gas and dust approximating the solar or “cosmic” composition and that it underwent the obvious differentiation not only with respect to certain gases but also with respect to more refractory elements. Differentiation could have occurred within the hypothetical solar nebula itself even before separation of the condensed body, through ambipolar diffusion in a mixture of neutral and ionized gases in a magnetic field2 or by differential magnetic forces on solids3. It could also have occurred during condensation and agglomeration into the condensed sphere and later through igneous and metamorphic processes. Discussions of possible differentiation through magmatic processes have already been given by Salisbury4, O'Keefe and Cameron5, Lowman6 and Walter7.
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MUELLER, R. Apollo II Evidence for the Differentiation of Lunar Materials. Nature 226, 925–927 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/226925a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/226925a0
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