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Moon patterns explained

Electric fields enveloping magnetic bubbles create lunar swirls

By Meghan Rosen

- More than 2 years ago

Scientists have charged up an old moon mystery. New research suggests that swirling designs on the dusty lunar surface might be the product of electric fields generated by pockets of magnetic bubbles.

Bright white designs called lunar swirls stretch across about 60 kilometers of the moon’s surface. NASA

A stream of charged particles (glowing purple) flows around a magnet in a solar wind tunnel experiment.