Magnetized Moon Rocks Mystified Scientists... Till Now

The collection of rocks that the Apollo astronauts brought back from the moon carried with it a riddle that has puzzled scientists since the early 1970s: What produced the magnetization found in many of those rocks?
The longstanding puzzle has now been solved by researchers at MIT, who carried out the most detailed analysis ever of the oldest pristine rock from the Apollo collection. Magnetic traces recorded in the rock provide strong evidence that 4.2 billion years ago the moon had a liquid core with a dynamo, like Earth's core today, that produced a strong magnetic field.
The particular moon rock that produced the new evidence was long known to be a very special one. It is the oldest of all the moon rocks that have not been subjected to major shocks from later impacts -- something that tends to erase all evidence of earlier magnetic fields. In fact, it's older than any known rocks from Mars or even from the Earth itself.
http://www.physorg.com/news151251106.html

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