<p>Using a instrument-laden probe, Kaguya, which was placed in orbit around the Moon in 2007, the team found abundant signatures of the mineral in concentric rings in three big crater regions.<br /><br />The mineral, called olivine, is deemed to be a telltale of mantle, the deep inner layer of iron- and magnesium-rich rock that lies beneath the Moon's crust.<br /><br />A leading theory is that the Moon was created about 4.5 billion years ago after the "Big Whack" -- it was ripped from Earth after our planet suffered a gigantic collision from some space object.<br /><br />As the material coalesced into a ball, its surface gradually cooled, forming a crust made of a light-coloured aluminous mineral, feldspar, which floated in a dense, molten liquid.<br />Kaguya's data add a chapter to this "lunar magma ocean" hypothesis.<br /><br />It suggests that after the crust had formed, there was some massive overturn in the fiery liquid beneath. Olivine-rich mantle was brought from deep within the lunar bowels to within the base of the crust.<br /><br />At the craters sampled by the probe -- the South Pole-Aitken, Imbrium and Moscoviense impact basins -- the Moon's crust is very thin, and the olivine mantle may have been exposed by asteroids that smashed into the lunar surface, the paper suggests.</p>
<p>Using a instrument-laden probe, Kaguya, which was placed in orbit around the Moon in 2007, the team found abundant signatures of the mineral in concentric rings in three big crater regions.<br /><br />The mineral, called olivine, is deemed to be a telltale of mantle, the deep inner layer of iron- and magnesium-rich rock that lies beneath the Moon's crust.<br /><br />A leading theory is that the Moon was created about 4.5 billion years ago after the "Big Whack" -- it was ripped from Earth after our planet suffered a gigantic collision from some space object.<br /><br />As the material coalesced into a ball, its surface gradually cooled, forming a crust made of a light-coloured aluminous mineral, feldspar, which floated in a dense, molten liquid.<br />Kaguya's data add a chapter to this "lunar magma ocean" hypothesis.<br /><br />It suggests that after the crust had formed, there was some massive overturn in the fiery liquid beneath. Olivine-rich mantle was brought from deep within the lunar bowels to within the base of the crust.<br /><br />At the craters sampled by the probe -- the South Pole-Aitken, Imbrium and Moscoviense impact basins -- the Moon's crust is very thin, and the olivine mantle may have been exposed by asteroids that smashed into the lunar surface, the paper suggests.</p>