Scientists at the University of Hawaii are discovering that Earth’s plasma Sheet electrons can influence the moon’s weathering and help form water. The discovery improves our understanding of the Earth-Moon relationship and suggests future exploration opportunities.
A research team led by planetary scientists at the University of Hawai’i (UH) Mānoa has found that high-energy electrons in Earth’s plasma sheets contribute to the weathering process on the moon’s surface, and, importantly, that they They discovered that it may have helped the formation. water on the moon’s surface. The study was published in the journal September 14th. natural astronomy.
Understanding the concentration and distribution of lunar water is important for understanding its formation and evolution and providing water resources for future human exploration.This new discovery may also help explain the origin of earlier water ice Found in a permanently shadowed region of the moon.
Earth’s magnetosphere and its effects
Earth’s magnetism creates a force field around the planet called the magnetosphere, which protects the planet from cosmic weathering and harmful radiation from the sun. The solar wind pushes the magnetosphere and changes its shape, creating a long tail on the night side. Plasma sheets within this magnetic tail are regions composed of high-energy electrons and ions that can be sourced from Earth and the solar wind.
Until now, scientists have mainly focused on the role of high-energy ions in space weathering of the Moon and other airless bodies. The solar wind, which is made up of high-energy particles such as protons, bombards the moon’s surface and is believed to be one of the main ways water forms on the moon’s surface.
How the Earth’s magnetic tail affects the Moon
Building on previous research showing that oxygen in Earth’s magnetic tail causes iron to rust at the moon’s polar regions, Shuai Li, an assistant research scientist at UH Manoa School of Ocean, Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), I was interested in investigating changes in weathering. When the Moon passes through Earth’s magnetic tail, this tail almost completely shields the Moon from the solar wind, but not from the Sun’s photons.
“This provides a natural laboratory to study the formation process of the moon’s surface water,” Lee said. “When the Moon is outside the magnetic tail, the moon’s surface is exposed to the solar wind. Inside the magnetic tail, there are very few solar wind protons, and water production was expected to be almost zero.”
Li and his co-authors analyzed remote sensing data collected by the Lunar Mineralogy Mapper instrument aboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission from 2008 to 2009. In particular, they assessed changes in water formation as the Moon passes through Earth’s magnetotail. sheet.
“Surprisingly, remote sensing observations showed that water formation in Earth’s magnetic tail is almost the same as when the moon was outside of Earth’s magnetic tail,” Lee said. Ta. “This indicates that there may be additional formation processes and new water sources in the magnetotail that are not directly related to the injection of solar wind protons. It shows a similar effect.”
“This discovery, taken together with my previous findings on rusted lunar poles, shows that Mother Earth is strongly connected to the Moon in many unrecognized aspects,” Lee said.
Future research avenues
In future research, Lee aims to work on a lunar mission. NASAThe Artemis program monitors the plasma environment and water content on the Moon’s polar surface when the Moon is in various phases during its passage through Earth’s magnetotail.
References: “Formation of lunar water associated with high-energy electrons in the Earth’s magnetic tail” by S. Li, AR Poppe, TM Orlando, BM Jones, OJ Tucker, WM Farrell, AR Hendrix, September 14, 2023. natural astronomy.
DOI: 10.1038/s41550-023-02081-y