Researchers synthesize garnet-rich lunar rock to study moon's mantle

Our present-day moon has an interior structure containing a central metallic core, overlain by a mantle comprised of minerals such as olivine and pyroxene (e.g. Ol+Px mantle) underneath a shell of crust. Such a picture of the moon's interior has been formed from analyses of returning lunar samples and records of deep seismic events collected during missions to the moon.