Abstract
IN a recent paper1 written before the flight of Surveyor V, I suggested that metallic iron, aluminium and magnesium may exist on the lunar surface as a result of the chemical reduction of the surface by atomic hydrogen accumulated from long bombardment by solar wind protons. The large number of hydrogen atoms available and the continuous turnover of the lunar surface layer throughout the ages led me to suggest that there is a layer a few feet thick which contains metals.
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References
Sun, K. H., Westinghouse Res. Lab. Sci. Paper 67-1C2-APOLO-P1 (1967).
Salisbury, J. W., and Glaser, P. E., in The Lunar Surface Layer (Academic Press, New York, 1964).
Newell, H. E., Nat. Geog. Mag., 130, 578 (1966).
Jaffe, L. D., et al.; de Wys, J. N. ; Turkevich, A. L., et al.; and Gault, D. E., et al., see Science, 158, 631 (1967).
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SUN, K. Metals on the Lunar Surface. Nature 217, 243–244 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/217243a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/217243a0
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