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Planetary science

Ancient lunar dynamo

Nature volume 479, pages 183–184 (2011)Cite this article

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The differential rotation between the Moon's core and mantle may have powered the ancient lunar dynamo, either continuously over several hundred million years or intermittently after large impacts. See Letters p.212 & p.215

Possible energy sources have long been sought for a dynamo that could have produced the magnetic field possessed by the Moon 4 billion years ago1. In this issue, Dwyer et al.2 and Le Bars et al.3 show how the ancient lunar dynamo, which acted in the Moon's fluid core, may have been mechanically driven.

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Figure 1: The Crisium lunar basin.

GALAXY PICTURE LIBRARY/ALAMY

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dominique Jault is currently at the Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zürich, Switzerland, and in the Laboratoire ISTerre, Université Joseph-Fourier, CNRS, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.,

    Dominique Jault

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  1. Dominique Jault
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Correspondence to Dominique Jault.

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Jault, D. Ancient lunar dynamo. Nature 479, 183–184 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/479183a

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