Gold on the moon ?

Tomk1

Just wondering, could there be any gold on the moon?

BULLER

Good question! There shouldn't be. Gold is formed as the result of molten rock (magma) being intruded into solid rock. As the magma cools and solidifies, water and other volatile substances separate out from the magma under high pressure....
The moon has an absence of large quantities of molten rock, water, or pressure.

Rubecula

With gold being a heavy element it tends to be located in the core of bodies (planets) With the current theory that the moon was formed from a piece of the Earth after a collision it is unlikely that the moon contains more than a trace of 'heavy' elements. There is probably some, but it is unlikely to amount to much.

As Buller says we have it because it is brought up by volcanic action. There is no volcanic action on the moon, even if there was an abundance at the core, which is not likely.

4gun

Tomk1 wrote: »

Just wondering, could there be any gold on the moon?

were you thinking of doing some prospecting?:D

MayoForSam

Never mind gold, how about mining the moon for some Helium-3, at $5000/litre there's profit to be made?

http://news.discovery.com/space/this-moon-was-made-for-mining-helium-3.html

If fusion power ever becomes a reality, then we are going to need a source of Helium-3 and its not going to come from terra firma. In the movie 'Moon', Sam Rockwell's character is overseeing a massive mining operation to extract He-3 from the moon's regolith.

Expect to see 'Shell to Lunar Orbit' protesters in the near future.

dbran

Rubecula wrote: »

With gold being a heavy element it tends to be located in the core of bodies (planets) With the current theory that the moon was formed from a piece of the Earth after a collision it is unlikely that the moon contains more than a trace of 'heavy' elements. There is probably some, but it is unlikely to amount to much.

As Buller says we have it because it is brought up by volcanic action. There is no volcanic action on the moon, even if there was an abundance at the core, which is not likely.

Not now but there was a serious amount of volcanic action in the past. You just have to look at all the maria, ancient collapsed lava tubes and cinder cone volcanoes. That shoudl have churned up something from the depths. No!

But as you pointed out the current theories are that the moon formed mainly out of the combined mantles of both the impactors with both of their cores sinking to the centre of the Earth. So there would presumably be little or no Gold.

Even if it was in the form of Gold Bars sitting on the moon waiting to be picked up it woudl still not be profitable to send a rocket up to collect it and bring it back.

dbran

Tomk1

4gun wrote: »

were you thinking of doing some prospecting?:D

interested in investing? Send paypal to....
Just thinking with the current value placed on gold, and the old west's gold-rush, could something simular happen at some stage like a moon-rush.

Btw thanks for the replies, and Sam Rockwells film 'moon' is classic sci-fi, great film.

MapForJ

4gun wrote: »

were you thinking of doing some prospecting?:D

astronaut may have dropped a ring:D

Firefox11

I think there is a "Cash for Gold" Place set up there already!:D

Mr Trade In

No deal OP, That moon gold is mine.

dapperdon

There certainly was gold on the moon between 1969 and 1972 as the visors on the Astronauts helmets had a tin layer of gold in them to deflect solar radiation so I think that 3 year window might be the "Clondike" period for any moon prospectors but the astronaut might have put up a slight objection to having his only means of survival taken away from him, highly likely gold is part of the debris left behind, part of circuitry on experiments etc, other then that if the moon was formed from a collision with earth of a mars sized object it stands to reason some of earths gold now forms part of the moons mass

slade_x

Wikipedia has an informative enough page on the geology of the moon including the elements that we currently know are present

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Moon

Elements known to be present on the lunar surface include, among others, oxygen (O), silicon (Si), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), aluminium (Al), manganese (Mn) and titanium (Ti). Among the more abundant are oxygen, iron and silicon. The oxygen content is estimated at 45%. Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) appear to be present only in trace quantities from deposition by solar wind.

Neutron spectrometry data from the Lunar Prospector indicate the presence of hydrogen (H) concentrated at the poles.

Cork boy 55

What about asteroids? is there gold on them?

FrostyJack

BULLER wrote: »

Gold is formed as the result of molten rock (magma) being intruded into solid rock. As the magma cools and solidifies, water and other volatile substances separate out from the magma under high pressure....

Huh? Where did you get this from? All gold is formed by supernova's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_nucleosynthesis

Gold could be found on any asteroid, planet or moon in theory (although highly unlikely)

Batsy

NASA Strikes Gold and Water On the Moon

The PBS NewsHour reports: there is water on the moon — along with a long list of other compounds, including mercury, gold and silver. That's according to a more detailed analysis of the cold lunar soil near the moon's South Pole. The results were released as six papers by a large team of scientists in the journal, Science Thursday. The data comes from the October 2009 mission, when NASA slammed a booster rocket traveling nearly 6,000 miles per hour into the moon and blasted out a hole. Trailing close behind it was a second spacecraft, rigged with a spectrometer to study the lunar plume released by the blast. The mission is called LCROSS, for Lunar Crater Observer and Sensing Satellite."

http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/10/21/234229/nasa-strikes-gold-and-water-on-the-moon