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NASA Scientists examines 50 Year Old Moon Samples

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Published on: May 6, 2022,

It’s been a lot of decades humans have landed on the moon. With these voyages scientists want to learn more about our neighboring satellite. Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space in Maryland received samples of lunar surface that was carefully stored in a freezer. It was brought home by Apollo 17 astronauts in December 1972.

 

This research is part of Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis program. It is a process to frozen Apollo 17 samples. This was a new approach to future lunar missions.  “We started this in early 2018 and there’s been a lot of technical challenges that we’ve had to overcome to get to this point,” said Mitchell. She added, “ By doing this work we  are not just facilitating Artemis program but we are exploring human exploration into the rest of the solar system.”

 

For the scientists now working with the treasures, there’s something special about receiving samples that haven’t been investigated in nearly five decades. Previous study shows that some lunar samples contain amino acids which are essential to life on Earth. The team wants to understand their origin and distribution in the solar system and organic chemistry of the Moon.

 

The surface of the Moon is a harsh environment and unlike Earth it does not have an atmosphere to protect from exposure. The scientists use noble gases to measure the duration of sample that has been exposed to cosmic rays and understand the history of that sample.  With these studies new findings about the moon will be discovered.

 

 

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