First Nuclear Explosion Helps Test Theory of Moon’s Formation
In a new study, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego Professor James Day and colleagues examined the chemical composition of zinc and other volatile elements contained in the green-colored glass, called trinitite, which were radioactive materials formed under the extreme temperatures that resulted from the 1945 plutonium bomb explosion, to examine theories about the Moon’s formation some 4.5 billion years ago.