Strange "anomalies" reflecting light on the moon have become a mystery for scientists (photo)

Planetary scientists have discovered peculiar "anomalies" in sun-reflecting particles covering lunar rocks with an average size of about a meter. This study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets, may help scientists better understand the processes that formed and altered the lunar crust, as well as created inexplicable magnetic anomalies. However, at least for now, the strange rocks and dust particles remain an unresolved mystery.

Researchers came across these extraterrestrial dust clusters while examining a catalog of images taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Using artificial intelligence, they sifted through over a million images and narrowed down the number of stones of interest to approximately 130,000.

"We continue to discover unknown objects in this way, such as anomalous rocks that we are studying in this new research," said co-author Valentin Bickel from the University of Bern in a press statement.

They observed noticeable dark spots on some rocks around the crater Rainer K – a smaller impact crater near the larger Rainer crater on the western side of the Moon. "Usually, lunar dust is very porous and reflects a lot of light back in the direction it came from," explained Marcel Hess, an image analysis specialist from the Technical University of Dortmund. "However, when the dust compacts, its brightness usually increases. This cannot be said for the observed rocks covered in dust."

The team described the peculiar light-reflecting properties of the rocks using the photometric analysis method, which measures how light is reflected from objects.

Researchers suspect that boulders covered in dust were scattered as a result of an impact that formed the crater. However, not all boulders around the Rainer K crater were covered in this mysterious dust.

What this dust is and why it settled only on certain rocks, not others, remains a puzzle. The study authors suggest that it may be related to the physical characteristics of the lunar landscape, the microscopic structure of the rocks themselves, the static properties of the dust, or the Moon's magnetic field. The Rainer-Gamma region, where the craters are located, is known for its high magnetization.

Scientists hope that the upcoming NASA mission to the Moon, Lunar Vertex, which will collect samples from this region, will shed light on this dusty mystery. The mission will also create a map of the magnetic field of Rainer Gamma to determine how certain parts of the Moon acquired distinctive swirls and irregularities. This will help planetary scientists understand not only how the Moon formed but also other astronomical objects in our solar system with a thin or absent atmosphere.