Glass bubble find may explain weird lunar soil

Posted by Emma Woollacott

The discovery of nanoparticles inside bubbles of glass in lunar soil could explain why the moon's surface topsoil has such unusual properties.

It actually floats above the lunar surface, is very chemically active, and is both sticky and highly abrasive.

The explanation, says Queensland University of Technology's soil scientist Marek Zbik, lies in the nano and submicron particles found in the soil, which he's examined using synchrotron-based nano tomography.

"We were really surprised at what we found. Instead of gas or vapour inside the bubbles, which we would expect to find in such bubbles on Earth, the lunar glass bubbles were filled with a highly porous network of alien-looking glassy particles that span the bubbles' interior," he says.


The result, he says, is a type of soil which is entirely unknown on Earth.

Because nanoparticles behave according to the laws of quantum physics, materials containing them behave rather strangely.


"Lunar soil is electro-statically charged so it hovers above the surface; it is extremely chemically active; and it has low thermal conductivity eg it can be 160 degrees above the surface but -40 degrees two metres below the surface. It is also very sticky and brittle such that its particles wear the surface off metal and glass."

The reason similar nanoparticles aren't found on Earth is probably because its atmosphere cushions the impact of meteorites.

