Soil would hang above the surface, withstand heat - and would stick to astronauts like glue

By Eddie Wrenn

PUBLISHED: 02:51 EST, 20 June 2012 | UPDATED: 05:44 EST, 20 June 2012

A soil scientist has uncovered the mechanics behind some of the weird properties of lunar soil.

When the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon in 1969, they discovered curiosities within the layers of dust, which had laid completely still and undisturbed - except for the occasional meteorite impact - for millennia.

But when it was disturbed, strange behaviour was witnessed: The dust would hang above the surface far longer than the moon's weak gravity could account for, it would cling to clothing and equipment as though it had been glued to the surface.

It could also resist heat - the temperature of the surface when in direct sunlight could be near the boiling point of water, but just a few feet under the surface it would be colder than the freezing point of water.

Marek Zbik studies the nanoparticles found in lunar dust bubbles

The unusual properties have never been properly understood, until soil scientist Dr Marek Zbik, of Queensland University of Technology's Science and Engineering Faculty, travelled to Taiwan to investigate the soil under nano-microscopes - a technology which had not been invented in those heady days of the Space Race.

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Scientist unlocks the quantum secrets of the moon's bizarre soil, which hangs suspended above the surface when touched