Silver found on Moon

Last year’s mission to crash-land a rocket into the dark side of the Moon has enabled scientists to analyze the lunar soil.

The rocket’s impact into the perpetually shadowed Cabeus crater sent a plume of lunar debris into the air, allowing scientists to finally get a glimpse of what the Moon is made of. The same mission had previously revealed that there were significant quantities of water on the Moon, and now it appears there are also significant traces of silver. Scientists believe the element was deposited on the Moon by some of the many meteorites that have crashed into it over millions of years. The soil analyzed also contained carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and mercury in higher concentrations than in lunar soil exposed to the sun, which causes such substances to evaporate back into space.