Scientists get reading from lunar orbiter that could lead to data on the composition of the moon and the evolution of the solar system

After a decade of trying to hit a moving target 240,000 miles away and the size of a small book with a laser, NASA and French scientists recently made a shot that promises to help them understand everything from the composition of the moon to the evolution of the solar system.

The target is a reflector on the Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter (LRO), which was launched to study the moon in 2009, according to a press release from NASA. By collecting data on the amount of light reflected from the orbiter, scientists hope to be able to calibrate measurements from reflectors placed on the moon in the 1970s.

The older reflectors have been returning weak signals, but scientists don’t know why, according to the press release. Comparing the results from hits to the LRO’s reflector to those from the existing five moon-based reflectors can help them to account for the weaker signals and make more precise measurements.

Data from firing lasers at the moon-based reflectors has already given scientists a significant amount of data over the years, according to the post. It was how scientists discovered that the earth and moon are very slowly drifting apart, as well as that the moon has a fluid core.

But more precise measurements could give an even deeper understanding, as scientists seek to find out whether there is a solid core within that fluid, according to the press release. A greater understanding of the composition of the moon could help scientists to understand how the moon ever had a magnetic field, and why it lost it billions of years ago.

The precision of this one measurement has the potential to refine our understanding of gravity and the evolution of the solar system,” Xiaoli Sun, a Goddard planetary scientist who helped design LRO’s reflector, said in the press release.

In addition to the implications of fine-tuning measurements with the data from the LRO reflector, new efforts pioneered by French scientists from the Géoazur team at the Université Côte d’Azur use an infrared laser, which can better-penetrate earth’s atmosphere than the green-light lasers NASA scientists have been using.