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Two divine(r) papers this week in Science!

Dave Paige's group has 2 papers in this week's issue of Science which has an image from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on the cover. In a paper with lead author (and recent UCLA PhD) Ben Greenhagen, the team reports analyses of data from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment that reveal "the presence of highly evolved, silica-rich lunar soils in kilometer-scale and larger exposures". A second Diviner paper (Glotch et al.) reports "mid-infrared spectra best explained by quartz, silica-rich glass, or alkali feldspar." The Diviner data "suggest that both extrusive and intrusive silicic magmatism occurred on the Moon" and that the history of igneous processes on the Moon may be more complex than previously considered. Congratulations to Professor Paige and the whole Diviner team!

Posted on Sept. 21, 2010