Shiny Orange Glass Beads On Reveals Moon's Explosive Past

The Moon is covered with small and shiny glass fragments that range in colour from bright orange to yellow-green. The fascinating bead-like materials were discovered during the Apollo mission and were brought back to Earth along with other Moon samples to study their composition, structure, and formation processes. But scientists have now revealed the mystery behind them.

The beads were formed some 3.3 to 3.6 billion years ago and provide insights into the Moon's volcanic history. Their analysis would help scientists understand the geological evolution of our natural satellite.

"They're some of the most amazing extraterrestrial samples we have," Phys.org quoted Ryan Ogliore, an associate professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

"The beads are tiny, pristine capsules of the lunar interior," Ogliore added.

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This orange glass is a type of volcanic glass found particularly in the Taurus-Littrow valley, where Apollo 17 landed, researchers revealed after studying small details. They used advanced technologies that were not available earlier, such as atom probe tomography, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.

"We've had these samples for 50 years, but we now have the technology to fully understand them. Many of these instruments would have been unimaginable when the beads were first collected," Ogliore added.

The findings of the study, led by Thomas Williams, Stephen Parman and Alberto Saal from Brown University, were published in Icarus.

Each bead is less than 1mm across and contains elements like iron, magnesium and titanium. Scientists revealed that they were formed when magma was ejected during volcanic eruptions and rapidly cooled.

"The very existence of these beads tells us the moon had explosive eruptions, something like the fire fountains you can see in Hawaii today," he said.