The moon has never had all that much. It doesn't have
atmosphere, it doesn't have water and it sure doesn't have life.
What it does have, though, is dirt lots and lots of dirt and
it's some of the coolest stuff you ever saw. Now it's even
cooler, thanks to the discovery this week of a wholly unexpected
ingredient stirred into the lunar mix. Even before astronauts
landed on the moon, they knew the soil would be something
special. With no atmosphere to intercept incoming meteorites and
micrometeorites, the lunar regolith or surface covering would
have been subjected to a 4.5 billion year bombardment that would
have produced a layer of dust far finer than confectioner's
sugar. That dust, the Apollo crewmen found when they went out to
play in it, did some strange things: it rose above the surface
when disturbed and hung there far longer than could be explained
by the moon's weak gravity; it crept deep into the weave and
cracks of virtually anything it touched and clung there as if
adhesively attached. What's more