Abstract
THE new determination of magnetic field anomalies over part of the Moon's surface from Apollo 15 and 16 subsatellite magnetometer data has recently been interpreted1 in terms of magnetised areas of the lunar surface. I show here that, from this analysis, palaeomagnetic pole positions can be calculated and that these are so clustered on the lunar surface that there is evidence against meteoritic or cometary processes as explanations of the remanent magnetisation of the Apollo rocks. I conclude, therefore, that the Moon had a magnetic field in its early history produced by dynamo processes in a fluid electrically conducting core.
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RUNCORN, S. The origin of lunar palaeomagnetism. Nature 275, 430–432 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/275430a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/275430a0
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