Planetary Science and Exploration Seminar, Sonia Tikoo: "Exploring the Moon’s magnetic mysteries via rover exploration" Sponsored by Geophysics Department

Event Details:

Global magnetic fields are like the heartbeats of planets – invisible, yet detectable signals of activity within a body’s interior. Remanent magnetism preserved in the lunar crust and rock magnetic studies of Apollo samples collectively indicate that the ancient Moon likely generated a magnetic field in its early history, prior to two billion years ago. However, the field intensity history, longevity, and underlying mechanisms driving the ancient lunar field are debated – especially because the Moon’s small core size and overall size theoretically make it difficult to sustain core convection and magnetic field generation over billions of years. Here we discuss the latest developments in our understanding of the Moon’s enigmatic magnetic history and discuss proposed future efforts to measure lunar crustal magnetic fields via future rover exploration (e.g., the Lunar Vertex investigation, the Endurance mission, and Artemis surface science).

Sonia Tikoo is an Assistant Professor of Geophysics, and by courtesy, Earth and Planetary Sciences at Stanford University. She is the Principal Investigator of the Stanford Paleomagnetism and Planetary Magnetism Laboratory. She received a B.S. in Geology from Caltech and a Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences from MIT. Prior to joining Stanford in 2019, Sonia was a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley and the Berkeley Geochronology Center and an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University.