When the Artemis program returns humans to the lunar surface, astronauts may want to make sure they’re up to date on their tetanus shots. The Moon is covered in rust. In 2020, data from India’s ...

A new investigation into rust on the Moon implicates Earth as the culprit. Oxygen leaking out of Earth is likely responsible for the transformation of iron to hematite (Fe 2 O 3) at the lunar poles.

Recent studies have revealed that the Moon is rusting, a surprising phenomenon attributed to “wind” from Earth carrying water and oxygen necessary for rust formation. This interaction, influenced by ...

I grew up with the idea that the Moon was a dry, airless rock where metal simply sat unchanged for billions of years. The discovery of actual iron rust in lunar soil has blown a hole in that picture, ...

The Moon is rusting — and it’s Earth’s fault. Scientists have found that oxygen particles blown from Earth to the Moon can turn lunar minerals into haematite, also known as rust. The discovery adds to ...

Tiny iron oxide grains found in lunar soil samples brought by the Chinese Chang’e-6 mission upend what was known about the Moon’s surface and magnetic properties, scientists revealed in a new study.

For more than half a century, scientists pictured the Moon as an almost fully reduced world where iron stayed locked in low-oxygen states. That idea came from Apollo samples, which showed that solar ...