Decades of Moon Temperature Rising Mystery Solved

As we all know, human activities have caused the earth to warm up. Today, this warming trend has been extended to the moon.

Recently, a new research paper of the US “Journal of Geophysical Research” explained why Apollo moon landing caused the temperature of the moon to rise.

Most of the moon is covered by a layer of bright dust called weathering. When the moon meets the sun, the weathering layer of white color actually acts as a reflection.

Studies have shown that even if the astronauts did not emit chemicals that cause the temperature of the moon to rise or anything like that, but the visiting of astronauts can damage the weathered layer; when walking or by means of transportation across the surface of the moon, making the dark lunar soil barely exposed, darker soil absorbs more light, the albedo is reduced, and heat energy increase.

The latest photographs of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at two landing sites show that the weathering layer on the astronaut path has been dimmed.

The researchers said, “As a result of the astronaut’s activities, the amount of solar heat absorbed by the weathering layer increased slightly on average, which led to the lunar warming.”

The slight warming effect brought by human visits will not have much impact on the lunar study, but it is a very interesting observation: how humans unconsciously changed the world.

It is worth noting that this observation also has a certain value for the Mars plan, that is, how to take active measures to prevent the negative impact of human activities on the surface of Mars