Nature: Planetary science: Lunar conspiracies

Robin Canup

doi:10.1038/504027a

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Nature: Planetary science: Shadows cast on Moon's origin

Tim Elliott & Sarah T. Stewart

doi:10.1038/504090a

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Nature Geoscience: Planetary Science: Occam's origin of the Moon - pp996-998

Linda T. Elkins-Tanton

doi:10.1038/ngeo2026

Following almost three decades of some certainty over how the Moon was formed, new geochemical measurements have thrown the planetary science community back into doubt. We are either modelling the wrong process, or modelling the process wrong.

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Nature Geoscience: Planetary science: Traces of ancient lunar water

Erik H. Hauri

doi:10.1038/ngeo1752

The presence of water in lunar volcanic rocks has been attributed to delivery after the Moon formed. Water detected in rocks from the ancient lunar highlands suggests that the Moon already contained water early in its history, and poses more challenges for the giant impact theory of Moon formation.

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Nature: Planetary science: Galvanized lunacy

Tim Elliott

doi:10.1038/490346a

The finding that magmatic material from the Moon is more enriched in the heavy isotopes of zinc than its terrestrial and Martian analogues prompts fresh thinking about the origin of our natural satellite.

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Nature Geoscience: Moon formation: Earth's titanium twin

Matthias M. M. Meier

doi:10.1038/ngeo1434

A giant impact on the young proto-Earth is thought to explain the formation of the Moon. High-precision analysis of titanium isotopes in lunar rocks suggests that the Moon and Earth's mantle are more similar than existing models permit.

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Nature: Planetary science: Ancient lunar dynamo

Dominique Jault

doi:10.1038/479183a

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.

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Nature: Planetary science: Making mountains out of a moon

Maria T. Zuber

doi:10.1038/476036a

The Moon's cratered surface preserves the record of impacts that occurred during the late stages of its accretion. New simulations show that a collision with a companion moon may have formed the lunar farside highlands.

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Nature: Planetary science: The early Moon was rich in water

Marc Chaussidon

doi:10.1038/454170a

Analyses of lunar volcanic glasses show that they are rich in volatile elements and water. If parts of the lunar mantle contain as much water as Earth's, does this imply that the water has a common origin?

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Nature: Planetary science: A younger Moon

Alan Brandon

doi:10.1038/4501169a

The most recent study of lunar rocks indicates that the Moon formed later than previously thought — a conclusion that requires our view of the early history of the inner Solar System to be revised.

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Nature Geoscience: Water in lunar anorthosites and evidence for a wet early Moon

Hejiu Hui, Anne H. Peslier, Youxue Zhang & Clive R. Neal

doi:10.1038/ngeo1735

Water has been detected on the lunar surface and attributed to delivery by impacts and the solar wind to a dry early Moon. Spectroscopic detections of water in lunar anorthosites from the Apollo collection suggest that a significant amount of water is indigenous to the Moon.

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Nature: Zinc isotopic evidence for the origin of the Moon

Randal C. Paniello, James M. D. Day & Frédéric Moynier

doi:10.1038/nature11507

Lunar magmatic rocks are shown to be enriched in the heavy isotopes of zinc and to have lower zinc concentrations than terrestrial or Martian igneous rocks; these variations represent the large-scale evaporation of zinc, most probably in the aftermath of the Moon-forming giant impact event.

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Nature Geoscience: The proto-Earth as a significant source of lunar material

Junjun Zhang, Nicolas Dauphas, Andrew M. Davis, Ingo Leya & Alexei Fedkin

doi:10.1038/ngeo1429

Geochemical evidence continues to challenge giant impact models, which predict that the Moon formed from both proto-Earth and impactor material. Analyses of lunar samples reveal isotopic homogeneity in titanium, a highly refractory element, suggesting lunar material was derived predominantly from the mantle of the proto-Earth.

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Nature: An impact-driven dynamo for the early Moon

M. Le Bars, M. A. Wieczorek, Ö. Karatekin, D. Cébron & M. Laneuville

doi:10.1038/nature10565

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Nature: A long-lived lunar dynamo driven by continuous mechanical stirring

C. A. Dwyer, D. J. Stevenson & F. Nimmo

doi:10.1038/nature10564

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Nature: Chronological evidence that the Moon is either young or did not have a global magma ocean

Lars E. Borg, James N. Connelly, Maud Boyet & Richard W. Carlson

doi:10.1038/nature10328

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Nature: Forming the lunar farside highlands by accretion of a companion moon

M. Jutzi & E. Asphaug

doi:10.1038/nature10289

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Nature: Lunar apatite with terrestrial volatile abundances

Jeremy W. Boyce, Yang Liu, George R. Rossman, Yunbin Guan, John M. Eiler, Edward M. Stolper & Lawrence A. Taylor

doi:10.1038/nature09274

These authors report the concentrations of hydrogen, chlorine and sulphur in the mineral apatite from a lunar basalt, and show that the concentrations are indistinguishable from apatites in common terrestrial igneous rocks. They conclude that both metamorphic and igneous models of apatite formation suggest a volatile inventory for at least some lunar materials that is similar to comparable materials within the Earth.

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Nature: The global distribution of pure anorthosite on the Moon

Makiko Ohtake et al.

doi:10.1038/nature08317

It has long been thought that the lunar highland crust was formed by the crystallization and floatation of plagioclase from a global magma ocean, but the exact mechanism by which such a crust formed remains debated. Data from the Japanese SELENE spacecraft are now used to produce a clear and high spatial resolution view of the composition of the lunar crust. The existence of widely distributed crustal rocks with compositions approaching 100 per cent (by volume) plagioclase is revealed.

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Nature Geoscience: Timing of crystallization of the lunar magma ocean constrained by the oldest zircon

A. Nemchin, N. Timms1, R. Pidgeon, T. Geisler, S. Reddy & C. Meyer

doi:10.1038/ngeo417

It has long been thought that the lunar highland crust was formed by the crystallization and floatation of plagioclase from a global magma ocean, but the exact mechanism by which such a crust formed remains debated. Data from the Japanese SELENE spacecraft are now used to produce a clear and high spatial resolution view of the composition of the lunar crust. The existence of widely distributed crustal rocks with compositions approaching 100 per cent (by volume) plagioclase is revealed.

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Nature: Volatile content of lunar volcanic glasses and the presence of water in the Moon's interior

Alberto E. Saal, Erik H. Hauri, Mauro L. Cascio, James A. Van Orman, Malcolm C. Rutherford & Reid F. Cooper

doi:10.1038/nature07047

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Nature: Super-chondritic Sm/Nd ratios in Mars, the Earth and the Moon

Guillaume Caro, Bernard Bourdon, Alex N. Halliday & Ghylaine Quitté

doi:10.1038/nature06760

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Nature: Late formation and prolonged differentiation of the Moon inferred from W isotopes in lunar metals

M. Touboul, T. Kleine, B. Bourdon, H. Palme & R. Wieler

doi:10.1038/nature06760

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Nature: Common source for Earth and Moon water

Ron Cowen

doi:10.1038/nature.2013.12963

Chemical fingerprints of lunar rocks suggest both bodies already had their water at birth.

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Nature: Moon rocks offer new view of lunar dynamo

Alexandra Witze

doi:10.1038/nature.2013.12929

Process that generated magnetism lasted 160 million years longer than previously thought.

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Nature: Moon-forming impact theory rescued

Ron Cowen

doi:10.1038/nature.2012.11610

Fast-spinning proto-Earth allows chemical mixing.

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Nature: Question over theory of lunar formation

Ron Cowen

doi:10.1038/nature.2012.10300

Titanium signature poses puzzle for popular theory of Moon's origin.

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