Apollo rocks reveal the Moon had brief bursts of super-strong magnetism

Oxford scientists resolved a decades-long debate about the Moon's magnetic field by reexamining Apollo rock samples and discovering that the Moon experienced only brief bursts of extremely strong magnetism lasting thousands of years, not the extended periods previously thought. The Apollo missions unknowingly collected samples from titanium-rich rocks that recorded these rare magnetic surges, creating a sampling bias that made scientists believe strong magnetism was common throughout lunar history.