Researchers have re-examined seismic data from the Apollo 17 mission using a novel pattern recognition algorithm. The preliminary study identified 50,000 new seismic events that occurred on the moon over an 8-month period. The events were had distinct signals at sunrise (a sharp double-peak) and sunset (a broad single-peak). The team posits that these events were caused by rapid heating and cooling of materials at the Moon’s surface.

Apollo 17 was the final mission of NASA’s Apollo program.The mission delivered human explorers to the Taurus-Littrow highlands and valley area of the Moon. Scientific objectives of the mission included, geological surveying and sampling of materials and surface features; deploying and activating surface experiments; and conducting in-flight experiments and photographic tasks. Experiments that were deployed included the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) with a heat flow experiment; lunar seismic profiling (LSP); lunar surface gravimeter (LSG); lunar atmospheric composition experiment (LACE); and lunar ejecta and meteorites (LEAM).

The paper, “Preliminary analysis of newly recovered Apollo 17 seismic data,” was published in the journal Results in Physics. The work was supported through the Planetary Data Archiving, Restoration, and Tools (PDART) program. The NASA Astrobiology Programprovides resources for this and other Research and Analysis programs within the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) that solicit proposals relevant to astrobiology research.